


Heirs to Something Greater

by CeciEvergreen



Series: Heirs to Something Greater Series [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Battle of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Death Eaters, Dom/sub Undertones, Durmstrang, F/M, Gryffindor, Gryffindor & Hufflepuff Inter-House Friendships, Gryffindor & Ravenclaw Inter-House Friendships, Gryffindor & Slytherin Inter-House Friendships, Gryffindor Common Room, Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Inter-House Relationships, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Express, Hogwarts Forbidden Forest, Hogwarts Fourth Year, Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff & Ravenclaw Inter-House Friendships, Hufflepuff & Slytherin Inter-House Friendships, Hufflepuff Common Room, Hufflepuff/Slytherin Inter-House Relationships, Ilvermorny, Ilvermorny House - Pukwudgie, Ilvermorny House - Wampus, Magic, Major Character Injury, Major Original Character(s), Malfoy Manor, Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter), Original Character(s), Quidditch, Quidditch World Cup, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, The Great Lake | The Black Lake (Harry Potter), Triwizard Tournament, Wands, Yule Ball (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 65,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27213142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CeciEvergreen/pseuds/CeciEvergreen
Summary: This is the story of Adeline Finley and Juliet Bloom, told by Juliet Bloom herself. Adeline and Juliet have been friends since the very beginning of time. Their parents went to Hogwarts together and stayed friends ever since, despite all the odds against them. When Voldemort was threatening the safety of their parents and their children, they moved to the US. This is where Addy and Jules grew up together, eventually getting accepted into Ilvermorny at 12. One day, death eaters find the Finley's home and they are forced to make a decision. The two families decide it may be safer to send them somewhere that will always give help when asked, Hogwarts. The last thing Juliet expected, was love... especially with someone like him.Make sure you go over to Adelines POV RIGHT HERE: @g_afy03 https://archiveofourown.org/works/27224515/chapters/66503143SET IN THE FOURTH MOVIE EXCEPT HOGWARTS STARTS AT TWELVE SO EVERYONE IS 16.14+ if possible, TV14-TVMAAll Rights Reserved®J.K Rowling owns the Harry Potter Franchise and its original characters. Not us, we're not that creative ;)
Relationships: Cedric Diggory/Original Female Character(s), Draco Malfoy/Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Series: Heirs to Something Greater Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1986748
Kudos: 7





	1. Introduction

Hello, and welcome to the world of Adeline and Juliet! As you may already know this series is a little bit different than some you may read, and if you don't? Don't worry I'll let you know the exciting part right now. This book is going to be book 1 of a series of 3-5 books (undecided) FROM Juliet's perspective! My good author friend, G, will be writing from Adeline's perspective in separate books! Cool right? We think so. Of course, we know that comes with a price... a lot of the first chapters, the important chapters, and other filler chapters will be basically the same plotline but with different scenes/POV which can be a bit annoying to read sometimes. And we totally understand, because of this, we will add an authors note before each chapter that will state if the chapter is the exact same, but with a different POV! That way you can choose whether you want to read the chapter again (this is what we recommend because every single chapter will be as different as possible and will have some important details for later in the story) or just read your favorite character's POV, vote, and skip to the next chapter! As the books progress, the stories will become farther and farther apart because even though they're best friends, they will be having different journeys! Trust me, bare with the first few chapters and you'll see how much fun it will be to hear two different sides of one HUGE story at the same time! You can either read both chapter by chapter, read one book and then go read the other, or read in whichever clumps you like! (We recommend reading chapter by chapter, it will be much easier to understand)

Commonly asked questions:

Updating:  
G and I will be updating every Sunday AT LEAST! We are very busy but working very hard to get chapters out to you as soon as possible, and we may release extra chapters throughout the week if we have time! We will be uploading each part at the same time so, if you wish to, you can read both chapters each week/day we release! If something comes up to were we can't post, I'll post an author's note so you are informed! Hopefully we will be giving an exact range of time soon.

What is the recommended age level for reading this book/ how mature is it:  
G and I decided that this book is better for 15+ but younger can read it if they wish. We will be keeping it as TV-14 as much as possible... but some mature scenes are obviously apart of this book. Mature scenes will have a warning in front of them and anything that may be triggering will be put in the authors note. This is not a smutty novel in that sense, but when things get hotter than TV14, we prefer you are 16+ when you read them. WE WILL WARN YOU BEFORE THE SCENE! There will be some TV-MA scenes, dirty jokes, mentioning sexual activities, etc. if you are uncomfy please don't read the parts we warn you about or don't read the book. If you feel that this series should be marked, "Mature" in Wattpad/AO3 please reach out!

When is this set:  
This is set during the fourth Harry Potter movie/book, Goblet of Fire! But we have switched some things around so that the relationships and character dynamics work better. In this Harry Potter universe, Hogwarts doesn't start until the children are 12. This means everyone in their fourth year, is now 16. (This is more appropriate for the relationships/language that occur throughout the book) The previous years have been the exact same plot and all the characters look the same as in each movie, they're just older. Cedric, Fred, and George have all been transferred to year 5 which means they are all 17. This will not affect the plot AT ALL, as we have a plan. EVERYONE IN THE FOURTH BOOK/MOVIE ALL LOOK THE SAME JUST AS SEEN IN THE FOURTH MOVIE IN THIS UNIVERSE, the only difference is the age. (As some of you may know, all the actors were older than 14 when they filmed the movie, so this is technically correct :) Although this wasn't filmed in 2020, there is 2020 humor, 2020 songs, and 2020 technology! It's just more advanced there I suppose!

Okay everyone now onto the fun part... introducing your characters for "Heirs to Something Greater":

The main OCs up first of course! We weren't inspired by any one person for these characters so instead? I made what I like to call a "Character Vibe Board" to help you all picture the character's better!

Main Character/POV: Juliet Lynn Bloom  
If you would like to see the inspo/"Vibe board" we made to help you picture her you can go to mine or G's wattpad:

Main Character: Adeline Rowen Finley  
If you would like to see the inspo/"Vibe board" we made to help you picture her you can go to mine or G's wattpad: 

Next! The OCs we created, but aren't main :)  
Easton Parr inspired by Louis Partridge.  
Ravenclaw. Friends with Juliet, Luna, and Adeline. Huge ego but it's not even close to how big his heart is. Kind of an Fboy.  
Lottie Lantenberg inspired by Amandla Stenberg.  
Bad arse Hufflepuff. Mainly friends with Juliet, but also hangs out with Cedric and Adeline. Super kind person, but definitely on the honey badger side of Hufflepuff. Juliet's dormmate and quidditch teammate.  
Diana Lueur inspired by... well, herself.  
Slytherin. Best Slytherin friend to Adeline/Juliet. One of the most kind, and welcoming Slytherin's you'll ever meet. Don't ever get on her bad side though, she's not afraid to strike back.

Parents:  
Charles Bloom inspired by... I'll find out one day  
Lynn Bloom inspired by Rachel Ray  
Theodora Finley inspired by  
Terrance Finley inspired by


	2. Scared of Something that Doesn't Exist

I could never understand why wizards abandoned muggle technology. I couldn’t even imagine a life completely devoid modern music, TV, and cars… but I suppose it’s from living with two muggle born parents. My first year at Ilvermorny, I had made a fool of myself when I asked where the washing machines were because I had spilled pumpkin juice on my skirt the evening before. Of course being a halfblood who lived in the muggle world did not help the whole “understanding magic” situation, but I still don’t see why the idea of a machine doing work was more silly than house elves. Poor things… most of them are treated so horribly by their “masters”. I cringed at the word… it didn’t sit right with me. I was going to continue the thought when the new addition to my playlist and yanked me back into reality.

I sang along to the new song that I heard in the car last night, “Sunflower” By Pauline Zoe Park. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I sounded pretty good, I was really vibing too. “You are the sun and I’m your sunflower, so I look to you and overflow,” My voice was beginning to rise as the song quickened it’s pace. I got up from my desk where I was beginning my letter to the headmaster of Ilvermorny, I was hoping to take an extra defense class in light of the recent rumors of… well you know who, but that could always wait. I turned up my speaker and song at the top of my lungs, dancing around the room with joy. Adeline always said that this genre of music fit my personality so well, but I don’t think she was truly a fan.

I pictured the team captain of the Horned Serpent’s quidditch team spinning me in a circle to the song. Sure he only glanced at me one time last year AND he’s like 3 years older than me but his hazel eyes were like a curse, I couldn’t get them out of my mind all summer. My curls swung around my shoulder as I swung my body around my tall bedpost, performing a dance routine that I’m sure looked quite silly considering I was making it up as I went. I made my way to my full body mirror and watched my movements. I started to swing my hips in a circle but immediately stopped because it made me look like a 40 year old trying to do a tiktok dance, yikes. I quickly decided it was better not to face the mirror and continued my parade around the room.

Suddenly, a green light burst out of the living room as I heard the familiar flume of floo powder. This was exciting, the last person who travelled here by magic was a representative of the Ministry of Magic, and if it’s as liberating as last time... it was going to be a good night. I ran over to turn down my music but paused as I heard a gasp from my mother, “Charles, bring your wand. Quickly! Merlin, what happened to you?!?!”

“Death eaters.” A deep voice came from the living room, I could recognize it immediately and my heart dropped. I turned to my bed table and grabbed my wand. My breath quickened as I ran out of my bedroom only to see the Finleys in my living room. Their hair was all over the place and their breath was ragged, but it didn’t look like anybody was hurt. I sprinted down the stairs quickly only to see Mr.Finley lean into the couch doubled over clutching his arm as Mrs.Finley ran over to the sink, wetting a washcloth. It was only then I saw the blood, when the white cloth turned a crimson red in Mrs.Finley’s shaking hand, and it wasn’t just coming from his arm. My heart was beginning beating faster as I had realised that I hadn’t seen her yet. 

My eyes scanned the living room frantically to find Adeline, our eyes made eye contact and she rushed towards the end of stairs. I ran towards her and hugged her tightly, “Thank Merlin,” I muttered.

She smelled of smoke, floo powder, and dust. Her hair sprung out of her ponytail every which way and her body trembled in my arms, we stayed in a hug for a few minutes before she pulled back with a sigh. My Mom yelled at me quickly after, “Juliet! Go close the curtains, we don’t need to deal with the police as well.”

Adeline and I rushed to every window as we pulled the curtains together by hand… it would have been much quicker if we could use magic, but that was the downside of living in a muggle neighborhood. When all the windows were covered, I whipped around and flicked my wand to latch the front door. My father rushed into the room with his wand and muttered a spell quietly a few times, the red fluid slowly moved back into Mr.Finley’s body. 

Everyone gave a breath of relief as he brought his hand up to my mother's shoulder, “I didn’t think I’d ever have to hear that spell from Charlie again, just like that one quidditch match, aye mate? I still think that was on purpose.”

My father chuckled, “I’m glad you’re back to yourself Terry. And I called it, that you were never going to drop that game I mean. You do realise it’s been 20 years right?”

Mrs.Finley looked up at my mother in disbelief, “Can you believe this, Lynn? Not even minute after Terrance almost bleeds to death and they’re already bickering”

My Mom laughed, a hearty laugh. I inherited my laugh from her, at least that’s what Mr.Finley used to tell me. The mood changed again when Mrs.Finley grabbed my Mother’s hand, “I’m sorry we had to burst on you like this. We didn’t know where else to go, and they were-”  
My Mom interrupted her with a hug, “It’s okay, I’m just glad you’re all alright.” She looked up from Mrs.Finley’s shoulder to see Adeline and flashed her a warm smile, to which Adeline returned. I walked over to give a hug to Mrs.Finley, when my Mom finally let go of her. I noticed that her jacket was ripped along the side. I could remember when she got it for Christmas a few years ago, after our trip to London to see my grandparents.

After everyone had calmed down, it was weird seeing the Finley’s in my home. We always went to their house for visits, as they lived in a small Wizard's complex an hour away, it was just easier that way. As my mother started a kettle of tea, not hesitating to use magic now that the windows were closed, Mr.Finley looked up at us with a serious face. “Children, go ahead, and head up stairs all right?”

Our fathers didn’t usually send us away for conversations, even if they were about sensitive topics like dark magic. This was when I knew it was serious, very serious. Adeline and I headed upstairs quietly. When we reached my room, she tapped my shoulder and whispered, “Do you wanna listen in?”

I considered saying no but my curiosity had already peaked, “How?” 

Adeline smiled and pulled a flesh colored string from her pocket. “It’s called an extendable ear, I got it in a bet last year from Barry, who got it as a gift from someone in London. I’ve never had a chance to use it! You’re supposed to just-” Adeline pulled the end of the string and a grossly accurate large ear sprouted out the other side. She did the same with the other end and offered me a smile. 

“That’s brilliant!” I said, mirroring her smile. We creaked open my bedroom door, only to see that the living room was devoid of any people.

“Of course they moved into the study, they just had to make this difficult,” I sighed. Adeline just smiled and looked at me, she began to lower the moving ear towards the ground. Suddenly, through the other ear I could hear all four of their voices clearly. I mouthed a ‘Wow’ towards Addy and she covered her mouth, as to not laugh. I was glad she was taking this whole death eater thing so easily, I would have still been shaking.

“Death eaters are on the rise Charles, it’s our only option,” I could tell it was Mr.Finley speaking. In the background, someone’s footsteps eagerly paced around the room.

“This is exactly what we tried to avoid last time by coming here! If we go back to London, we’ll ruin all we’ve worked towards. For the children, remember? HE’s not even alive!” My Father sounded frustrated, and while he had a short temper, this tone still worried me. I made eye contact with Adeline and our eyebrows scrunched together, why would we go to London?

“YET, he’s not alive yet! It doesn’t matter what we’ve done, it didn’t work. They found Terrance and Elladora, they know they have a child. Which means it’ll only be a matter of time until they’re back, for more than just them next time. They’re lucky to have escaped alive… we need to send the children somewhere we know they’ll be safe,” My Mom said calmly, she sounded very tired. I always admired how quickly she could calm down my Dad, she seemed to have a magic air to her voice… although it seemed this wasn't one of those times.

“So bringing them to London, closer to the danger is safer?” My Dad yelled. We flinched from the ear, we wouldn’t have needed the ear extendor to hear that sentence clearly. A short temper that matched his fiery red hair, a few other things I had inherited.

“Anywhere is safer than here Charlie, they need to go somewhere we know they’ll be safe, away from us… somewhere that always gives help when asked,” Adeline’s mom chimed in.

A few moments of silence passed before my Mom spoke again, “Well then it’s settled, I’ll send an owl to Minerva-”

“No need, I have to speak with Arthur anyways. I’ll drop by Hogwarts and talk with Minerva and Albus myself… sending an owl is too risky right now,” Adeline’s father interjected.

“And although the order was disbanded, I’m sure with Harry Potter going to school now… there must be talk of getting the old band together,” Adeline’s Mother said, it almost sounded reminiscent. How come they were all acting as if this was a normal conversation? They acted like it was just another day at work against the dark lord.

Adeline looked at me quizzically, I knew we were wondering the same thing, “What's the or-”

Suddenly, a loud whistle came from my kitchen. It blew through the ear extendor loudly and we jumped back. I watched in horror as it fell to the ground with a loud thump. Adeline and I made eye contact with our mouths gaping open as the study door opened. I looked over the railing to see my Mom walk out into the living room. Turning to Adeline again, I ushered her into my room, and slammed the door quickly.

“Maybe she didn’t-” I started before I was quickly proven wrong.

“Juliet and Adeline come on down here!” My Father yelled, but it didn’t seem to have an angry tone. Adeline and I inched past my door to see my father holding up the contraption, “Very clever, girls. Very clever.”

We started walking down the stairs as he chuckled, “Did you make it?”

“No, Sir! I won it from a friend…” Adeline piped up as we stepped into the living room.

“I assume you heard most of what we had to say?” my Father asked calmly. We nodded in unison, “Why don’t you two sit down, this may be a bit of a change for you girls”

The adults came into the living room, all looking at each other quite awkwardly. “Well you see…”, Adeline’s Father started out hesitantly.

“We think it may be safer for you two to, well..” My Father continued.

“If you transferred to Hogwarts to finish your schooling,” My Mom added in, “for good.”

Adeline looked towards me and we made eye contact. I couldn’t tell how she felt… we had already spent 4 years in Ilvermorny, it would be hard switching to Hogwarts but… this seemed important and we needed to be supportive of their decision, they needed our cooperation.

“When do we leave?” Adeline asked confidently, and I looked at her in surprise. I turned towards the parents and smiled. My father looked at me and nodded his way. There was no turning back now.

^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^  
“Ah, ah, when I was younger / I, I should've known better / And I can't feel no remorse / And you don't feel nothing back”

“Ophelia” really described the vibe we were feeling on the ride to the train. I was excited but sad that I was leaving my home, I never really was much for change… but an adventure? I’ll always volunteer… unless it has something to do with spiders. I turned to Adeline, we were sharing headphones… listening to our favorites before we’d have to give our phones up for the year. Leaving music was the worst part for me, and I think it was partially Adeline’s too.

It had been 2 weeks since the death eaters attacked, we had to go shopping because they had burned half of the house down when we came to help pack, the only things left were things that were charmed. When we arrived at the station my Mother, Father, and Adeline’s Mum gave us a hug. Her Father had left a few days earlier on business. They weren’t coming with us right away, they said they may come to London a bit after everything had calmed down… I doubted that things would be calm anytime soon.

After goodbyes we turned to leave before my Mother stopped me, “Gringotts Bank 3345, just say either of your last names and show them your wand. You have enough to last you… well, a long time. Oh and you two forgot these!” In her hand she held both of our phones, with our earbuds attached.

“Mom, you know these don’t work in the-”

“I charmed them for you. You won’t need service, charging, or some sort of device barrier… it’s a thank you for taking this trip so well for us,” My Mother teared up, “I know it’s hard, but I’ll send you an owl every week and-”

I hugged her hard, “Thank you Mum, I’m going to miss you” While attempting to hold back the tears that brimmed my eyes. It was harder to leave this time, when all of our lives were at stake I just wanted to stay with her.

When we pulled apart she placed her forehead on mine, “We’ll be together again soon.”

With a kiss on the cheek I turned around and pushed my trolley next to Adeline. Joy, my barn owl, screeched in her cage while we walked, I wasn’t going to look back… I don’t think I would have made it on the train if I had. In my maroon sweatshirt I felt my chameleon shift closer to me, and I hoped that they allowed exotic pets in Hogwarts.

The train looked like any other, but before I could observe any further one of the porters grabbed our stuff and started putting it underneath the cars, “Oh! Uhm, thank you!”

He grumphed back at us, and we took that as our invitation onto the train. I looked at the wood walls and we eventually found an open compartment. I was exhausted from the long car ride and I immediately collapsed on the large bed inside the booth, although it was more of a room. It had two beds and shelves for holding backpacks and handbags. Adeline and I had a quick conversation as the train started moving. Not too long afterwards I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until Adeline shook me.

“What’s up?” I yawned, circling my neck in an attempt to relieve the slight discomfort from the rocking train.

“Look outside your window, doofus!” Adeline said in awe as she stared out the window. I moved over to join her to see that we were heading straight onto a beach! The train sped up as we left the tracks and lurched into the water, I craned my neck to see the train moving through the water like an electric eel. Once our window was eventually submerged, we could see the bubbles rising from underneath the train. I hoped they made sure to close the luggage doors tightly enough.

Typical… it was just like a wizard, choosing the weirdest, most interesting, yet bloody brilliant way to travel. Now I understand why our parents didn't use the floo powder instead… This was much more neat. After an hour, I grew quite tired of the endless blue hue in my window, and fell asleep on the bed again. I was lucky in the fact that I could fall asleep anywhere, Addy could usually do the same. I swore I heard her say a quick goodnight, but I fell asleep faster than I could respond.

I dreamt the team captain of Horned Serpent taking me off to some foreign land. Where all these evil things didn’t happen, people didn’t feel sorrow, and trains stayed above water… I think I was starting to get train- no seasick? Yeah, definitely seasick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Here's Adeline's POV chapter, written by the amazing @g_afy03 :
> 
> Thanks for reading so far! You just read 3,000 words in case you were wondering, so you're practically practicing for school reading assignments :) Good job being productive today guys! I love all of you, my messages are always open, and I hope you have a wonderful day/evening. 
> 
> Oh don't forget to add this to your library so you don't lose your place for the next chapter release!
> 
> Love, C


	3. Quidditch World Cup

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies! This chapter is very similar to Adeline's POV, but there is A HUGE key point in both books. I would reccomend reading both... but your choice Love! No TW for this chapter so I hope you can all enjoy... it do be super long though.

I was cold, freezing in fact when I woke up to a hand on my shoulder. I wanted to go back to sleep but I knew that wasn’t a good option. Suddenly, I remembered where we were and where we were going. Excitement bubbled up through my stomach and I opened my eyes to see Adeline standing there, all ready to leave it seemed like.

“Are we there?” I asked quietly.

“We will be in a few minutes so we should start packing up our things and get ready,” Adeline informed me in an almost whisper.

I got up and proceeded to tidy the room with Adeline, yawning profusely. I heard that lots of people couldn’t sleep well on trains, I wasn’t one of those people. I could probably sleep anywhere you put me, except if it was cold.

“Addy, how did you sleep?” I turned towards her but she seemed to be busy with her stuff.

“Yeah, it was okay. Hopefully, I can get more sleep tonight,” Adeline seemed pre-occupied with her thoughts so I decided to stop talking for a while. I was tired anyway, I wasn’t used to getting up so early in the morning.

Anxiety welled up in my chest as the train slowed down, I could see the station walls envelop the old train. Our parents hadn’t really told us much, what if the Weasleys weren’t fond of muggle-borns and their children? That was a dumb thought, my Mum said that they were friends in Hogwarts… they have to be nice. Adeline’s mother spoke very fondly of them, all my thoughts were just out of paranoia.

Adeline and I grabbed our things and made our way off the train slowly, there weren’t many people in this car so I was surprised when we both stepped off the train. The station was bustling with people of all sizes, it was kind of overwhelming. How were we going to find Mr.Weasley with this many people around? My thoughts were interrupted when Adeline grabbed my hand and weaved us through the crowd, where we were able to pick up our luggage.

It was the same porter as before, “Thanks for taking out the luggage!” I said but I assumed he didn’t hear me because of the noise the station held. 

We walked over to a spot where too many people were to search for Mr.Weasley. My trunk and owl were very clunky and I wished I had a trolley to move it all. I scanned the crowds a few times before realizing I had no clue what he looked like.

“Do you even know what Mr.Weasley looks like?” I asked Adeline as she stood on her toes to peer over the crowd. She wasn’t short, in fact, she was an inch or so taller than me! But the crowd made it difficult to look through, I was barely able to get past the first few people walking by. Her straight brown hair fell over her shoulders nicely as she shrugged. I realized that I hadn’t fixed my hair since I got up and it was probably a mess. I took it from its previous bun and threw it into a ponytail, it wouldn’t look too great down at the moment.

“I have no clue. All I know is he has red hair like yours. Apparently, the whole family does,” Adeline said while still searching, suddenly she smiled, “Hey I think that’s him.”

I looked over her shoulder, sure enough, there was a man with bright red hair. I didn’t get much time to observe before Adeline picked up her trunk and owl. She was on the move again and I struggled to follow her as I weaved through the crowd. I must have muttered 13 apologies before we actually made it to the man.

“Are you Mr.Weasley?” I asked. He seemed incredibly kind, a huge grin was on his face. I was guessing this was the correct man.

“That depends. Are you Adeline and Juliet?” He inquired. We both nodded and I breathed a sigh of relief, I didn’t want to walk through that crowd again, “Well then yes, I am. Please, call me Arthur. Would you like some help with your owl?”

“Oh no thank you I have it,” I said with a smile. I didn’t really have it but it was alright.

“Now we will just go to the end of the walkway here and apparate back to the Burrow,” Arthur looked back at us quizzically, “Have either of you apparated before?”

I looked at Adeline and then back at Arthur, shaking my head no. My stomach churned again, I heard apparating was not the most pleasant way to travel compared to most.

“We’ve heard of it but I’ve only ever traveled by Floo powder before,” Adeline spoke up. She was right but I think I’ve only traveled by magic 6 times in my life and that train was one of them.

“Perfect! Well, it’s very quick and saves a lot of time for traveling. Follow me,” With that, he turned and started walking across the station. Adeline and I both followed close behind him. My stomach churned and I lugged my trunk nervously, I was not looking forward to this. When we stopped, Arthur looked at us with a comforting smile.

“Okay now just put your hands on top of mine and we will go into a bit of swirling around and then be at the burrow within a few seconds. I hope neither of you gets motion sickness easily.” Oh boy, you had to be kidding me. That’s it. We’re going to die.

I switched around my objects so that I could place my hand on someones. When Adeline was ready, I placed my left hand on hers. Suddenly we were being transported in a big whirl, my chest twisted into knots and it felt like my stomach had just dropped to my feet. I screamed and scrunched my eyes shut. It was worse than any rollercoaster I’d ever been on and the anti-gravity spinny ride (you know the ones in fairs?) combined. 

As soon as it started, it was over. I could see clearly again but I felt extremely lightheaded, I attempted to stay up on my feet but I ended up falling back into the grass. My trunk and my owl crashed into the ground and, with a screech of disapproval from Joy, I pushed the cage back up quickly. I saw Adeline out the corner of my eye, she had also fallen. She also brought her owl, a tawny named Finn. I was considering just laying there to regain my thoughts when Mr. Weasl- Arthur spoke up. 

“Sorry about that girls. Are you alright?” Arthur asked while looking down at us.

“Well, that was something new,” Adeline said while brushing off her jeans. I nodded and got up at the same time as Adeline.

“Just a bit shook up,” I laughed. Mr.Weasley offered a smile to Adeline and I, before grabbing Joy’s and Finn’s cage in each hand. I took the opportunity to look around me. Next to us was a large house with very interesting architecture. The top two stories were connected to the bottom story by two beams, it was a really cute place to look at. The large house was surrounded by a huge grass prairie, the sun was rising from the left of the house slowly. I could feel slight moisture on my hands from the dew-soaked grass. And they had a car?!?! We could have driven here? I turned to say something to Adeline when the door to the lopsided house opened loudly. 

Two boys walked out the door. They had bright red hair just like their father, I presumed, and they seemed to be twins. I swear my jaw almost dropped, they were absolutely adorable! I turned to Adeline but she didn’t seem to notice.

“Ahh boys, can you come and grab the girl’s trunks?” Arthur turned to them. One came to my trunk and lifted it easily, while the other went to Adeline’s.

“Hello, Ladies.” They said in unison. I turned to the one next to me and smiled. They seemed really nice, I figured we’d be great friends. Even if I did have to crane my neck up 8 inches to see the boy’s face.

“I’m George,” The one next to Adeline said with a wink.

“And I’m Fred,” The one next to me added also accompanied by a wink. I blushed slightly and looked towards my feet. I had no idea how I was going to remember which one was which but I’d have to figure it out somehow… maybe I could convince them to get separate hair cuts.

“I’m Adeline Finley and that’s Juliet Bloom,” Adeline pointed towards me with her thumb. I was going to thank them for grabbing the suitcases when Arthur spoke.

“Alright inside you go. We have to leave within the next thirty minutes,” Arthur interjected.

It was still dark so I had to focus on where Adeline was walking in front of me, so I was sure I didn’t trip. We walked up the steps into the warm lighting inside the house. It smelled of pumpkin spice, apple pie, coffee, and… breakfast. Oh my goodness, I was hungry! I saw many different magical things riddled throughout the house. Dishes were washing themselves, a big clock like structure with a bunch of faces including the boys sat on the living room wall, and a sweater was being knitted by floating sticks. We must be far away from any Muggles… it would have been nice to know how to spell dishes to do themselves at my house.

“Oh, wonderful! You’re both here!” A woman with short wavy red hair walked in. She had a very warm smile on her face, and I automatically liked her. She quickly walked up and hugged me, which I gladly accepted. When she twirled around to hug Adeline, I almost laughed. She seemed quite shocked, the boys didn’t hold back their laugh.

“Please sit down at the table and eat some breakfast. You will all be off soon! Wouldn’t want to be hungry now would you?” Mrs.Weasley smiled and ushered us towards a large table covered in all sorts of food. My mouth watered as I scanned over the eggs, toast, bacon, and various fruit over the table. Adeline sat next to me, as the boys gestured for us to sit across from them. Once it was our turn, we filled up our plates quickly. I was starving so I tried a bite of the small muffin I grabbed, and sure enough, it was Pumpkin flavor. I almost moaned it was delicious.

“How was the train ride, dears?” Mrs. Weasley asked from the living room. I swallowed quickly to answer her question.

“Oh, it was wonderful! We both slept most of the time. Thanks for having us over Mrs.Weasley and feeding us, it’s very kind of you.”

“Oh poppycock, you both will always be welcome here. Please call me Molly, Mrs.Weasley makes me feel like an old lady. Harry, Ron, and Hermione should be down soon. Where’s Ginny?”

“Right here Mum,” In walked a girl who seemed to be a bit younger than the boys. Her red hair was straight and fell down her back smoothly. She went and sat down next to one of the twins. She was very pretty, though she seemed to keep to herself while we ate.

“Oh uhm hi,” She looked at us as if she’d just noticed us sitting there. She must not have been told that we were arriving today.

“Hello,” Adeline began to introduce us when George and Fred interjected. Addy seemed to be the one to introduce us all the time, I guess it was just the role she picked up.

“That’s Adeline, and that’s Juliet.” They pointed at each of us while saying the sentence at the same time. I was kind of in awe, they must be really close to be saying things in unison all the time.

The silence that filled the room afterward, made me want to say something but suddenly someone was running down the stairs. I turned to see a very pretty girl coming towards the table, her hair was pulled back into a bun but the flyaways hinted at her curly brown hair. She immediately sat next to Adeline and introduced herself with a smile.

“Hi, I’m Hermione Granger,” she said, looking at the both of us. I figured she wasn’t a Weasley considering the hair.

“I’m Adeline Finley, that’s Juliet Bloom,” Adeline introduced us again. I put down the piece of toast I was buttering. I gave a small wave and Hermione returned one with a smile. She seemed very kind.

“Hermione are the boys up?” Molly asked her calmly.

“I told them to come down and eat, Molly, but knowing them, it will take them more time than necessary.” She made it sound like she knew them for a while. We all continued eating for a few minutes before everyone had finished and Arthur walked in.

“Is everyone ready? We have to get going!” He said very rushed. Suddenly two boys came stumbling down the stairs, one of them had straight red hair just like the others but the other one had dark brown hair and glasses. Both of them were also very attractive. House of freaking models, was everyone in London so hot? I thought until the redhead decided to contradict my statement.

They rushed to the table and started shoving food in their mouth from the table, not even bothering to sit down. I was afraid the redheaded boy was going to choke, he was wolfing it down so quickly. At one point, he looked up at the table from where they were standing and made eye contact with Adeline.

“Blimey, who are you two?” I could barely make out what he said as his mouth was full of bread and bacon. Some chewed food fell out of his mouth on the table and I had to hold back a laugh. Hermione scrunched up her nose and sighed.

“Ronald, finish your food before you talk!” Hermione seemed even more grossed out than Adeline which made it even more comical. 

“Everyone out the door! Now! We have to be on our way.” Molly began to usher everyone out of the kitchen and dining room. I ran over and shoved my shoes on, I shouldn’t have taken them off because Adeline was already heading out the door. We all stood up from the table and pushed in the chairs. The group seemed to descend into chaos while everyone was grabbing jackets and objects. I lunged over the couch to grab my bag and rushed out the door behind Ginny.

____

We hadn’t been walking long and it had been quite boring. Not much was talked about besides the few questions from Arthur to Adeline and me. We were in the front, the twins slightly behind adding to the conversation every few minutes. Behind them were Hermione and Ginny, walking in comfortable silence, and then all the way in the back was Ron and Harry. I couldn’t hear if they were talking or not but I assumed they were too tired to really talk.

“Hey, Dad! Where are we going?” Ron whined from the back. I thought Ron was quite funny, I don’t think I’ve even heard Harry speak yet. Harry kind of has side character energy, I thought.

“Haven’t the foggiest, keep up!” Arthur yelled back. When we came over the slight hill another man was standing there, when we reached the man we stopped. A huge tree loomed behind him, the sun was fully up now and the forest looked quite pretty.

“Arthur! It’s about time son.” The man said with a joking smile on his face.

“Sorry, Amos. Some of us had a bit of a sleepy start. This is Amos Diggory, everyone, he works with me at the ministry.” Arthur said I was going to say hi before I was interrupted.

All of a sudden a boy jumped out of the tree above us. I jumped back quickly and brought my hand up to my mouth to stop a yelp. When I realized it was just another EXTREMELY ATTRACTIVE MALE I brought my hand up to my chest in an attempt to calm my heart rate. What now they’re just dropping out of the skies like freaking spider monkeys? What is with all these heartthrobs?!?!

“And this strapping young lad must be Cedric, am I right?” Arthur presumed. Adeline looked like she was about to risk it all, and I almost cackled.

The boy stuck out his hand and shook Arthurs. “Yes sir.” 

He looked at Adeline next as she stood right next to Arthur. His face turned up in to a very charming smile, Adeline was very composed. I would have gotten weak in the knees if I got looked at like that by a guy, but I suppose she’s used to getting guys like him.

“Who are these new faces?” Amos Diggory looked right at Adeline and me.

“This is Adeline Finley and Juliet Bloom. They are transferring to Hogwarts this year from Ilvermorny. Both of their parents attended Hogwarts when they were younger. We all grew up together.” Arthur said with a smile.

“Nice to meet you.” Adeline smiled at Amos and he returned it. Cedric was still staring at her like she was a rare flower. He couldn’t have made it more obvious, but Adeline still seemed completely clueless.

“Well, off we go. Cedric, you lead the way,” Cedric turned around and started down the path with the rest of us following

As we started behind Arthur, I made sure they were far enough ahead that they wouldn’t hear me. I leaned into Adeline's shoulder with a giggle and whispered, “Dude did you see the way he looked at you?”  
She looked at me confused, and I mentally facepalmed. What did I say? Clueless.

“What are you talking about?” She asked me.

“Cedric. He was totally checking you out,” My voice rose so she could hear me.

Adeline laughed loudly as if I was making it up. Cedric glanced around and smiled specifically at Adeline, completely ignoring that I exist. 

“See what I mean! Why do you always get the attractive ones?” I asked with a laugh. Cedric chuckled ahead of us and my face turned warm. He did not just-

“I think he heard you,” Adeline whispered.

Suddenly a heavy arm rested on my shoulders, one of the twins rested on me with a smile. Adeline had the other one on her shoulders as well, “Oh pretty boy Diggory... Definitely heard you.”

I facepalmed and my face turned even redder. It didn’t help that George and Fred had heard as well… especially when they were so close to me. I wanted to die of embarrassment.

I didn’t have much time to dwell on it as the twins changed the subject to quidditch and the world cup. I appreciated the change of conversation greatly, and I think the twins knew it. We walked just a few feet further. The forest dwindled into rolling plains, and we left the treeline into the grass.

“That’s it, sir, just over there.” Adeline and I looked across the hills, but nothing was there.

“Shall we? We don’t want to be late.” Amos walked up past us and towards Arthur and Cedric. I then noticed the worn-out brown boot that was laying on the ground. Everyone started to form a circle around the boot and my stomach churned. I didn’t wish to apparate again, but I didn’t understand why we had to form a circle around a dumb old boot. I stood in between one of the twins and Adeline, looking nervously at the boot. The twin next to me seemed to notice my hands gripping the edge of my sweater, he took my hand from my sweater and put it on his own. With a reassuring squeeze, he smiled down at me. I smiled slightly back, I really appreciated the kind gesture and it reduced my nerves

“Why are they all standing around that manky old boot?” Harry’s voice came out of nowhere. He speaks!

“That isn’t just any old manky boot mate,” The twin next to Adeline said with a smile.

“It’s a portkey,” the one holding my hand smiled down at me. I shakily nodded my head in understanding. I felt horrid not knowing which twin he was, but they really were identical. At least I knew what a portkey was, but I didn’t really know how they felt to travel with.

Everyone began to lay down and touch the boot with their hands, so I did the same. The twin’s hand still held mine tightly. I looked over at him and he smiled again, it made my face grow a blush. So I turned to look at Adeline, she seemed to be comfortable with the situation so I turned towards the boot again. 

“Time to go. Ready?”

“What’s a portkey?” Harry was still confused but no one seemed to answer his question. I considered explaining but I didn’t think I knew enough about how it works.

“After three. One… Two…”

“Harry!”

Harry quickly jumped for the boot, almost missing it.

“Three!”

We all gripped onto the boot and started spinning really fast. It felt quite similar to a quicker version of a tilt-a-whirl… but without the tilt part. I started screaming with adrenaline along with Hermione. My hair escaped its previous ponytail and whipped into my face. Hair got in my mouth and I wasn’t able to scream anymore, I felt bad for the twin's hand. I must have broken it by now, if not then I definitely broke his eardrum. 

“Let go kids!” Arthur yelled out through the whish of the wind.

“WHAT!” Hermione and I yelled at the same time.

“Let! Go!” Arthur yelled again.

Harry let go first, and then we all released our grip and flew backward. My hand slipped out of the twin's grip and I yelled as a bright flash released us somewhere else. I fell hard into the ground on my back, my neck snapped back and my head hit the hard ground. I didn’t appear to be hurt, and neither did anyone else but it took me a minute before I could breathe again. It literally had knocked all the wind out of me, I heard Adeline groan something before I took in a deep gasp of air. My head hurt like the devil but I slowly brought my hands up to my face.

“I bet that cleared your sinuses eh?” I turned my head over to see Arthur, Amos, and Cedric floating through the air and gracefully hitting the ground, unlike the rest of us. I was jealous, my head and ribs were definitely jealous. Why couldn’t we have just taken the car?

I slowly sat up to see Adeline talking to Cedric as he helped her up. I let out a groan as I stood up shakily. I began to lose balance due to my lightheadedness but I was not going to fall on the ground for the third time in less than five hours. I leaned against my own knees and then straightened my back out.  
I let Adeline and Cedric have their moment before walking over to her, “Yeah sure, of course, you get the extra help up. I flew just as far.”

She laughed and I just stared at her. Uhm I was in pain Adeline… laughing at me.

“Sorry, sorry,” Adeline grabbed my hand and made a dramatic face, “Oh my sweet Juliet, my dear, are you ever alright?” I yanked my hand out of hers and pushed her shoulder.

“Oh shove off,” I said again with a small smile.

Adeline was cackling by now, so I started to abandon her before she realized I was leaving. She was still laughing super hard as she ran up to me and I turned to her.

“IT wasn’t that funny!” I turned to her with a frown.

“You- your hair!” She was almost crying now, bent over laughing.

I reached up to my hair and gasped. I forgot that my hair thing fell out, and my curly hair definitely disagreed with the windy environment earlier. My hair poofed out in all directions and I cursed.

“Do you think you could take some time from making fun of me and give me one of your hair things?” I started pulling my hair back and holding it with my hand until Adeline gave me one of her hair things.

I pulled it back into a bun, and then we realized that we were falling behind. We jogged to catch up with the others. Adeline still giggled a bit and I turned to scowl at her. When we walked over a small hill I could see all the people that were there. Thousands upon thousands of tan tents covered the ground below. People were flying by on brooms and people were crowded around the tents.

“Parting of the waves I think old chap, see you at the match.” Amos turned to walk off down a different path.

“See you later Cedric.” Both of the twins yelled out. Adeline seemed a bit disappointed as they disappeared into the crowd. The twins went to surround Adeline, and I knew she was about to get picked on.

“Don’t worry Adeline,” one of the twins stated.

“You’ll see your loverboy again,” the other one finished.

They laughed amongst themselves and I giggled with them.

Adeline scowled at them, “He’s not my lover boy you dimbos!”

“Oh come on now. You can’t tell us that you don't find Diggory good-looking.”

Adeline looked at them annoyed, “Are you serious? I’ve just met the boy.”

“You don’t need to know who he is to label his looks. Now then?” 

“Alright fine yeah he’s attractive,” she admitted. I was surprised, I thought she was going to actually hold her ground.

“Wicked,” they chimed in unison. I almost laughed when Adeline scoffed and pushed through them to get into the tent. I followed closely behind, there was no way this tent was going to hold all of us though. I was quickly proven wrong when we walked in and the inside was bigger than my whole house. Woah. The twins sat next to the table.

“Girls. Choose a bunk and unpack. Ron, get out of the kitchen we’re all hungry.”

In unison, the twins yelled, “Yeah get out of the kitchen Ron.”

Arthur looked at the twins who had their feet on the table. “Feet off the table.” 

I watched as they moved their legs down off the table and repeated, “Feet off the table.” Once Arthur walked past, they put their feet back on the table. I thought it was quite amazing how well they did everything in unison. 

___

Why did we have to walk up so many gosh dang stairs, I was climbing behind Adeline for the past 20 minutes. I was getting tired of looking at her back, and I assumed everyone was feeling the same way. 

“Blimey dad, how far up are we?” Ron asked a little out of breath. We stopped on a slight overlook to gain our wits before we attempted another staircase. Before Arthur could answer I heard a silky deep voice from a platform down below.

“Well put it this way, if it rains… you’ll be the first to know.” I whipped around to see a man wearing all black. His hair was longer with a whitish-blonde color, I leaned over the railing with the others to see them clearly. He held a very maniacal looking cane in his gloved hand. He looked like the definition of evil, but it wasn’t fair to judge people on their looks.

My attention was brought to a different person when he spoke. When I saw him my mouth went dry and butterflies rustled in my stomach. I had never seen anyone more attractive… MERLIN’S BEARD HOW MANY HOT BOYS LIVE HERE??? He was wearing all black as well and his blonde hair resembled, I assumed, his fathers.

“Father and I are in the minister’s box, by personal invitation of Cornelius Fudge himself.” He said in a cocky tone. Okay, he’s a little big-headed but… that smirk made up for it. I sighed a bit and leaned into the railing.

The older man took his black cane and hit his son, right in the stomach. “Don’t boast Draco. There’s no need with these people.” 

Okay, who is this arsehole? There was no need for any sort of disrespect in this situation. Adeline voiced my question, “Who’s that charming bloke?”

Her question was laced with sarcasm. Suddenly I jumped as Cedric had just appeared out of nowhere, “Lucius and Draco Malfoy. Not the kindest people if you ask me.” 

What was with this guy and scaring people, I caught my breath again and observed the slight blush Adeline was getting. I shipped them so hard.

“Lovely,” Adeline said with a twang of disgust.

My attention drifted back towards the young boy, just because his father was bad doesn’t mean he was! The apple can sometimes roll far away from the tre-

“Oi! When did you guys pop out another red-headed freak? Didn’t think you could afford what you have now, as it is, let alone another child.” Draco said as he squinted at me in confusion.

Ouch, I cringed a bit. Okay well, there went that theory. The apple definitely didn’t roll very far. My face turned a little red as everyone looked at me. Adeline let out a small gruff of anger and I half expected her to jump the balcony and bonk him upside the head… with her fist.

“She’s not my sister you incompetent bloke.” Ron seemed disgusted, “She’s not even related to me.”

All I was hoping was that Ron’s disgust was directed toward the Malfoys, not the fact I looked like I was related to him. Adelines face scrunched up again in anger. I was used to comments like that by now, I know I had unique hair. I also know that I’m not a pureblood, nothing anyone could say would change that. It may have hurt a little bit coming from someone that I had just been obsessed with a second ago.. especially the freak part. But I would live. My face was as red as my hair by now.

We turned to walk away when Harry suddenly stopped. I looked down to see his foot stuck under Lucius’ black cane. “Do enjoy yourself won’t you. While you can.” He removed his cane and walked away with his son who took one last look towards Adeline and I. Lucius’ eyes lingered on Adeline a bit longer than I found comfortable but when she shot him a glare he turned to walk away. Draco looked back up towards me, his eyes lingered just like his fathers but it was with a bit of a different tone held in them. My face flushed again and I looked towards my feet. We continued our climb.

We finished walking up the steps all the way to the top, which took forever. When we reached the top, fireworks and balloons were all over the place. I looked in awe at the huge crowd and all the people. It was amazing; I smiled very wide at the sight. I was really happy to be there, surrounded by so many nice people. I got caught up in the view, missing what Arthur said. But I turned back to see a seat open between Ginny and Hermione, they smiled at me when they sat down so I was happy.

“Come on!” The twins were yelling now with green and white face paint all over them. 

“It’s the Irish!”

Green and white figures flew through the sky on their brooms, a green powdered trail behind them. A leprechaun appeared in the sky and started dancing. Everyone was so happy and excited I laughed and cheered with them.

“Here come the Bulgarians!” 

Now five red figures flew through the air, performing stunts on their brooms. On a large screen, none other than Viktor Krum appeared. ‘Krum’ was being chanted throughout the stadium. I thought we were cheering for the Irish but even the twins were yelling his name. I turned towards Hermione and she had a little blush on her cheeks, I wondered if maybe she thought he was cute.

Adeline caught my eye and checked on me. I smiled a huge smile and held a thumbs up. She could worry a lot, but I thought it was sweet. I think she thought I was a lot more fragile than I was, but she had a right to think so, it wasn’t based on pretenses But compared to some of the times at Ilvermorny, this was paradise. I think I can handle a lot more than she thinks I can… although, I hadn’t really had the chance to prove it.

Silence coated the stadium as the announcer held his wand to his throat and boomed, “Good evening! It gives me great pleasure to welcome each and every one of you to the final of the 422nd Quidditch World Cup. Let the match begin!” 

The game was exciting, I cheered just as loud as the twins at some points. And Hermione was especially kind to me. At one point I turned to see Adeline chatting with Cedric, I wasn’t sure when she switched with Harry but a smile grew on my face. She seemed so happy, and I was so excited for her. Cedric was such a kind, handsome, man… they’d be perfect together. I nudged Hermione and Ginny and motioned to the two lovebirds. Hermione pouted, “They’re so cute!”

We laughed together and then put our attention back at the game. It was extremely close, but Ireland had won with 170 points, despite Krum catching the snitch. I was ecstatic the game had been amazing! Having played quidditch myself on multiple occasions, it was really fun to see professionals at it. I actually was really good at quidditch, almost as good as Adeline in fact. Everyone at Ilvermorny knew her for her skills, especially the game she stood in for the main seeker. She caught the snitch and won the game for Wampus!

Arthur stood up with Amos and the rest of us took that as our signal to do the same. “Well then kids, some match that was!” 

“Some match indeed!” The twins backed away from their spots on the railing and started towards the stairs. We all started to follow. I grabbed my bag and put it around my arm. It only had a bit of money, a scarf, my wand, and another jacket. I was always cold, luckily today I was too excited to notice. 

I was not excited about the walk down, it was late and I haven’t ever been this tired. Adeline’s next statement almost made me look decently upon apparating, “Technically couldn’t we just apparate back to our tent?”

“Apparition only works for more powerful and trained wizards. You also normally need your wand for it, and with big crowds like this, it’s too dangerous.” Hermione spoke from below us.

“Well that’s rubbish,” Adeline said with a groan. I laughed, but deep inside I was really glad we weren’t able to do it right now.

The twins seemed to be the only ones who weren’t tired as heck. They were pushing each other around, singing, and even managed to trip Ron by tying his shoelaces together. Arthur wasn’t very happy when Ron crashed down into his back.

It took us almost an hour before we were at the end of the stairs. The sky looked romantic with fireworks for the Irish and the number of cheers going through the night. The stars peeked through the clouds barely visible due to the bright fireworks. When we made it to our tent, finally, the Diggorys decided to part ways.

“We will meet you in the morning back at the portkey.” Arthur bid goodbye to Amos and walked into the tent with everyone following him. Well almost everyone, I turned back to see Adeline with Cedric, bidding goodnight. I smiled to myself and continued inside the tent.

I was so tired I almost collapsed into my bed but I had to check on Tito before I went to sleep. I looked into my bag, he was sleeping on the vines inside the plastic ball. Tito was only a baby, so his cage was quite small and light for now. It was a magic enclosure that my parents had got me for my birthday, it was constantly humid inside, and no matter what way you turned it, the one side stayed upward, so while I was walking he wouldn’t ever be thrown around. It turned out to be quite useful today! I assumed it was also quite strong, especially since I had fallen onto it twice on the same day and it was without a dent. He still had a few mealworms so I set him gently into my bag.

I turned back to see that Adeline had fallen asleep. I was enjoying the peace until Ron decided to start singing. 

“There is no one like Krum! He’s like a bird, the way he rides the wind. He’s more than an athlete… he’s an artist!” Ron said dreamily. I laughed loudly, and then covered my mouth in hopes that I didn’t wake up Adeline. When I peeked around the corner she was still fast asleep, I doubted anything would wake her. I walked over the join the other people next to the couch.

The twins bumbled about singing “Krumm, Kruuuuum” comically. Ginny smirked, “Think you're in love Ron?”

The twins began in unison, “Viktor I love you. Viktor I do!

Harry soon joined in on the offkey song, “When we’re apart my heart beats only for youuuuuu!”

Suddenly, loud explosions came from outside. Screams chorused from outside. The hairs rose on the back of my neck.

“Sounds like the Irish have got their pride on!” One of the twins commented. I relaxed a bit but another scream that sounded like bloody murder sounded from outside. I got up and ran into the room Adeline was sleeping in.

I heard Arthur yell something at the boys but I was too occupied with getting Adeline, “Adeline, get up now!”

“What’s wrong?” She sat up, we almost bonked foreheads. I leaned down and slung my bag over my shoulder.

“We have to leave now. Something’s wrong!” I said while pulling her up. She grabbed her bag and started running. I stopped and scanned the tent to be sure no one was left behind, before turning and sprinting out of the tent. Things were exploding and people were running everywhere in an attempt to escape. I was searching for where to run when someone hit my shoulder while running by.

I watched as Ron, Hermione, and Harry ran a completely separate way... the wrong way. I quickly took another glance around and ran towards the trio. Suddenly a huge explosion made the three duck away and I lost them. Two people in dark hoods muttering ominous sounds began running towards me. I froze in panic before reaching in my bag for my wand.

Suddenly someone grabbed my hand and I turned to see Adeline, dragging me along with her. We started running after the twins, we quickly caught up. But as we rounded a tent that was on fire, Adeline ran straight into Cedric.

“Oh finally, I’ve been looking for you.” He grabbed her hand and whispered in her ear. We started running again. Another person rammed into me, and I fell backward losing Adeline’s hand. I got up quickly as one of the twins grabbed my forearm and lifted me forwards. They urged me forward as I was running out of breath. Ginny was close by and I breathed a sigh of relief.

We finally made it to the hill. Amos, Mr.Weasley, Cedric, and Adeline were already there. I stopped to catch my breath before realizing Ron, Hermione, and Harry weren’t here. I turned around to see two of them running from the burning tents. 

“We lost Harry! We couldn’t find him anywhere!” Hermione was shaking and Ron was running beside her. I turned to Arthur, and he ran back into the chaos. I considered following him, but I didn’t want Adeline to follow me.

Adeline said something but I only heard what Amos said next. But it wasn’t needed... I stared up into the sky, as fear curled around my spine. A ghostly skull with a snake coming out of its mouth marked the sky as if a symbol of victory. I knew that symbol, and the only thing it ever brought was pain. I breathed heavily, staring up at the moving cloud… the smoke coated the sky, and not a single star shone through. Funnily enough, we needed some light about now. I turned back to see Adeline still holding Cedric’s hand, well I suppose there was one light then.

I watched as the trio and Arthur made their way back up the hill before my gaze returned to the image and my stomach stayed unsettled. A strand of my hair blew into my face as the wind picked up. I had a feeling that the battle here may have been over, but war was just about to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: WOOOOOWW WHAT A GREAT MESSAGE!  
> Anyways, what house do you think Adeline and Juliet will be sorted into? If chapter 3 is already posted you're not allowed to cheat... or I'll hit you with a pillow.  
> GO CHECK OUT ADELINES POV @g_afy03 ITS AMAZING!  
> Okay but seriously guys, what do you think? I know it was SUPER long but you can blame it on G. ;) Please remember to vote so we can grow as a community, I love you all! MWAH  
> Love, C


	4. Leather Trunks and Dusty Footprints

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, Lovelies! We are super excited to release our next chapter early for all of you. The POVs are very similar again, but like always, we recommend that you read both. No TW again, please enjoy, and thanks for reading!

The British countryside was beautiful. I thought that, at the beginning of the day, I could stare out the window for hours... but that quickly wore off an hour into the trip. My mind began to wander far past the rolling fields that whipped by the window. I was so happy Adeline always let me sit on the inner seat, I liked to lean my head against the glass and daydream.

We were on the Hogwarts Express and it had been hours since we left King's Cross at 11. I was already starving but we still had a long time until dinner, I should have eaten an early lunch. We sat across from the twins who were discussing what seemed to be important tomfoolery. My mind drifted back to the night before, people seemed to move on so quickly after such massive events.

Harry was soon found after Ron, Hermione, and Arthur went back for him. He was a bit more shaken up than the others and I worriedly glanced at him a few times on the way back to the Burrow. Harry was an awkward boy, but I liked his kind smile. 

And I hoped I could speak more with him in the future. The portkey went exactly as last time for me, but Adeline got a little help from Cedric... I was just happy my hair didn't fall out again.

We walked through the dim forest back to the house in mostly silence. We had to use our wands and the Lumos spell to even see the path. Even still, Adeline tripped multiple times... I believed her mind was set on something, no someone, else.

Of course, being the gentleman he is, Cedric attempted to keep Adeline steady most of the journey. It was a sweet gesture, even if Adeline barely even took notice of its meaning. I smiled at Cedric and Mr. Diggory as they returned home for the night once we reached the Burrow, and Cedric returned the gesture.

Everyone was silent for the rest of the night, whether from thoughts, fear, or pure exhaustion, I wasn't sure. Well, almost everyone. Molly had been jittery before we went to bed, she seemed worried that we had to even be touched by a situation like that. 

I knew my parents had or will probably hear about the attack on the celebration and be quite worried. So, despite my exhaustion, I began to write a letter, but Molly assured me that everything would be taken care of. She spoke soft, kind, and comforting things as people moved throughout the house for bed.

Adeline and I were put into two twin beds across from Ginny's room. A circle window allowed the moon to shine a blue beam onto the bedroom floor. When I had changed into some sweatpants and a soft shirt that was too wrinkled to be worn out in public anymore, I crawled into the nice bed. 

It felt amazing to be in one place for a while, and I almost fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I allowed myself to listen to the ticking of clocks around the house, before turning to see that Adeline was already asleep. Before long, I too was off into a dreamless sleep.

I had been woken up by a bright beam of the sun right in my eyes. It wasn't the most pleasant part of my day but at least I had slept amazingly well. After taking a shower, which was greatly appreciated, I changed into some new clothes. I put on a nice pair of jeans and a blush pink blouse from the muggle store down the street from my house back home. 

Since my hair had just been washed and I had been able to add some product to it, I decided to let my hair down for a while and hope it didn't frizz into a lion's mane on the way there. Adeline had decided that it was silly to wear the uniform before we got there since we didn't have our robes or our ties, so I followed her lead.

Adeline spoke to the twins for a bit until she said something that caught my ear, "Listen, okay so I hate to ask this, and I feel bad about it but I have to ask..."

All three of us looked at her quizzically, before I realized what she was about to ask, "Is there any way to tell you guys apart because I don't know who's who?"

"It's okay actually."

"Most people just refer to us as Weasley since they don't know the difference."

"Oh, uhm I'm sorry guys that sucks," Adeline said with a disappointed frown. I felt bad for them, they were always referred to as a pair... it had to have been quite damaging to their individuality. I paid close attention to what they said next, in hopes that I could use this information later on.

"Well you see here, Freddie has a freckle right here." The twin pointed to his brother next to him and placed his finger right above a brown freckle that was on the left side of his face below his eye and closer to his hairline.

"And you see here, Georgie has a more flatter nose, while I have a bump in mine." Adeline watched them closely. I squinted and leaned slightly closer to see a bit of a difference between them, although I'd still have to take a bit to tell who was who.

"Okay yeah definitely. I might stare at you guys for a bit when I walk down the halls to see which one of you I'm talking to, so don't be alarmed," Adeline said jokingly. The twins laughed a bright laugh and I smiled, I would most likely be doing the same thing.

"Well don't stare too long, Diggory might get jealous," They had cheeky grins on their faces. I let a loud laugh escape from my mouth as Adeline tried to hide her blush while staring at the ground. It was hilarious how Fred and George kept teasing her about the subject, they seemed to enjoy bringing it up.

"Seriously guys! I doubt he's even into me," Adeline muttered. I widened my eyes, was this girl blind? Deaf? Was she a quadriplegic with no feeling in her arms or legs? Because she was beginning to sound like it!

"You've got to be kidding me." I said dumbfounded, "Did you not see the way he was looking at you? Or how happy he seemed when he was talking to you? OR when he ran back into a BURNING CAMP just to find you!" I considered slapping her upside the head right there.

"Or the way he held your hand and made sure you were okay," George said? I squinted and leaned in before spotting the difference. Okay, it was George.

"Or the way he left the portkey early with the rest of us to make sure you didn't faceplant again?" Fred commented with a bit of an eyebrow wiggle. They were quite observant, those two.

Adeline seemed shocked, and I wanted to openly groan. This was like some sappy young adult chick-lit, which I adore deeply, where the girl was completely oblivious despite all the signs. Except worse. Her lips parted slightly and stared up at us in a bit of a shock. Yes, Adeline, it was that obvious.

"I get that you only just met him and all but clearly he wants to get to know you better. I wish I could get a guy to look at me the way Cedric looks at you. It's like he's infatuated and he only just met you!" I said with a bit more passion than I probably could have. Suddenly my mind crossed back to the boy we met last night.

The way he had grabbed the railing in that black suit he wore, how his jaw tightened at the sight of us, his blonde hair staying perfect despite the slight wind, and the way his eyes lingered on me when he left. And how his face scrunched lightly at his father's scolding and action. I also remembered the words he said and my jaw clenched slightly, what was it? "Red-haired freak", I believe. It was dumb how I could even think about him in any other way than disapproval, ESPECIALLY with what he said about the kind Weasleys who had given us so much. Merlin, what the hell is wrong with me? Such an ignorant, selfish person you are Juliet... so, so stupid.

"Okay, okay! This is all just new to me. I already have more friends now than I did the past three years of my life," Adeline said with a bit of a huff. We used to keep a small circle I suppose... I hadn't really thought about it until now but we didn't truly leave many memories behind that didn't just belong to both of us.

____

Adeline had fallen asleep on my shoulders a few times on the way there. I didn't mind, I got to talk to the twins a bit more about their pranks and how well they did last year. I took a quick note to remember not to drink or buy anything from them. The boys could be quite loud, as they had laughed at something I said about first years and woke Adeline. And then laughed again when she bonked her head on the wall in a bit of a fright later on in the train ride.

"We're gonna be there in about an hour," George said after a few moments of silence. I remembered what side they were sitting on, so I didn't have to stare at them creepily.

"Might want to go change into your uniforms," Fred added with a raised eyebrow. They were already changed, and I wasn't sure why we hadn't changed earlier... it would have been way more convenient. Now we had to walk all the way to where the trunks were stored, we probably should have just kept them with us. We nodded at the boys and I smiled in thanks, they were sweet to remind us.

We walked down the hallway with intent. I felt cool while we walked down the moving train, it reminded me of that one scene in "Enola Holmes." It was also really nice to see some of the students on the train, all of them seemed nice and happy. One compartment had a runaway chocolate frog on the window, and another had paper airplanes flying throughout the room. 

We even passed by Ron, Harry, and Hermione at one point. They smiled at us and waved, I was sure that over the year we would become closer friends. Although it made me wonder where Ginny had sat, I hadn't seen her since breakfast this morning.

Finally, we reached the section where a lot of the trunks were stacked. The pile seemed to be quite big, and I figured we were going to have to find someone taller to help us. We should have brought one of the twins, or even Ron... although I was pretty sure Adeline would have liked it if Cedric was nearby to give a hand. I eventually spotted our trunks, and Adeline seemed to notice them as well... of course, they were at the absolute top.

"These are gonna be heavy to pull down. We should have just brought them into our compartment," Adeline groaned while throwing her head back slightly in annoyance. There was no possible way we were going to be able to bring them down without dropping them on our heads. Adeline slid one of the bottom trunks from its original position and aligned it in front of our own.

"What are you doing?" I asked, cocking my head slightly. It was a bit silly to be rearranging the other trunks, in my opinion.

"If I use this one as a step up then I can get the trunks easier," Adeline said without turning towards me.

"I don't know if that's a good idea. It seems a bit rude to use some random person's trunk."

"Oh but this isn't any random person's trunk," Adeline looked up at me with a huge smirk on her face, "This trunk says DM, and I'm willing to bet that DM stands for none other than that Draco Malfoy. If anything, he deserves it."

She continued to align the trunk against my better judgment. Draco already hated us and I doubted that stepping on his trunk would make him think otherwise. Maybe if I dusted off the footprints and put it back EXACTLY where it was before he wouldn't even notice. Adeline stepped up onto the trunk with confidence and grabbed my trunk, passing it to me with a grunt.

These things were way too heavy for their good. When I set mine down Adeline left hers on the shelf and grabbed her pants, skirts, sweater, and button-up. She handed them to me and then went back to relatch her trunk. I quickly did the same when suddenly the sound of the car door sliding open made me turn around. Oh no.

"What are you two mudbloods doing in here?" The one and only Draco Malfoy spat. If I hadn't been so surprised and scared out of my wits I would have been offended. When his eyes saw what Adeline was standing on, I wanted to die, his face twisted in anger, "What the hell are you doing! You think you can use my stuff? Clearly, you don't know who your superiors are!"

I turned to Adeline and I could practically see the smoke coming out of her ears. I thought she was about to pummel him when she said, "Listen I don't know who you are, or who you think you are, but you have no right to talk to either of us that way."

She stepped towards him quite aggressively, and while he seemed taken aback, I grew more worried as I realized something. His wand stuck proudly from his pocket underneath his robes and ours were still in the compartment with the two boys... which could be an issue since the only spell I could do without it was making flowers come out of someone's ears. Draco began to open his mouth again when he was cut off by a familiar voice.

"What's going on in here?" I turned around to the other end of the train car to see Cedric walk in with another boy. They seemed to be doing the same thing as us because they were in their normal clothes. I was so thankful he showed up, I almost ran over and hugged him, I was worried we were about to bring fists to a wand fight.

"Nothing, just Malfoy being a pain in the a-"

"How dare you talk to me!" Draco spat. We weren't making this whole rivalry thing any better...but he didn't seem to be trying to fix things either.

"Just leave Malfoy. Come back later when we won't be here to 'dare to talk to you'," Cedric came to stand by Adeline with a serious, but bargaining face. I enjoyed how calm he was, it was a good change from the insults. Draco scoffed and turned out the door in a fit, I think it may have been because he was now outnumbered.

"Are you alright?" Cedric looked at Adeline with a concerned face... just Adeline. I was standing there too, Lover Boy!! Jiminy Christmas I might as well have been under an invisibility potion.

"I'm fine, but what's his deal? He's always got such an attitude." Adeline huffed and then stepped right back up onto Draco's trunk... I wonder what he had come in here for in the first place? Adeline grabbed my trunk and heaved it onto the rack, she must have been angry because its weight didn't even phase her.

"Why don't you step off of Malfoy's trunk and let me do that?" Cedric asked while taking a step towards her. Well thanks, Cedric, but it's already on the rack, I almost giggled. He looked as if he was going to try and stabilize her by grabbing her waist, but he quickly put his hands back down to his side. Adeline didn't notice it, but he stood quite close to her... I think he was worried about her falling.

"I'm fully capable, thanks," Adeline huffed again. She liked to be as independent as possible, a very Pukwudgie trait in my opinion! Even though she was a Wampus and the warrior house did fit her better. Independence isn't my forte, but the rest of Pukwudgie's traits fit me quite nicely at Ilvermorny. I wondered if they had the same ceremony, sleeping arrangements, and games as us at Hogwarts.

Adeline pulled down her sweater, that had ridden up sometime during the whole Draco exchange, and hopped off Malfoy's trunk. And then proceeded to shove the trunk sloppily underneath the other racks. Her dusty footprints still sat prominently on the expensive leather casing, D.M. in gold lettering sticking out as if it was taunting the wealth it held. I considered bending over and fixing it but Adeline seemed frustrated so I decided to just leave it be.

"Maybe next time, just ask someone for help? Or at least try not to get on Malfoys bad side." Cedric's voice was laced as more of a request than a question. He was being so kind and patient but it seemed as though Adeline was not having it, she turned around and grabbed her clothes from me.

"Okay, fine," Adeline said with an annoyed look on her face. She looked into Cedric's eyes and her face melted into a bit of a trance, I watched as they stared at each other for a minute. Cedric's eyes appreciatively raked over her features while Addy couldn't break away from his eyes. I made eye contact with his kinda cute friend (Of course. The question to ask in the UK was, "Who ISN'T cute here?"), but he seemed to be so lost. He looked at me as if to ask a question and I responded with a knowing smile countered with a shoulder shrug.

"Cedric we need to get our stuff too," He said with an awkward smirk. I was slightly grateful as it was getting a bit awkward for both of us, but annoyed at the same time. They were having a moment! Like in the "Notebook", when Noah and Allie were lying in the street about to get hit by cars!

"Uhm yeah, okay." We started to walk away from the boys because I didn't want to be stuck in another awkward situation. "I'll see you later Adeline?"

"Yeah, see you later Cedric," Adeline said with a lovestruck smile. How did he do that? Just a second ago she was getting ready to punch some pureblood meanie, and now she's practically dancing down the hallway! After walking a bit further, I found a girl's changing room and Adeline followed me through the doorway. No one was in there and I smiled, I preferred to change in as much privacy as possible and I was sure the bathrooms were too small to make that an option.

"Hey, are you okay? Malfoy's a jerk for saying that stuff," Adeline said while looking me into the eyes. She seemed very concerned, I smiled at her in return. She was always looking out for me, it was really sweet. I would have been worried for her also, but little did Malfoy know... she was a pureblood.

She came from a very powerful family, one of the few that didn't discriminate against muggles and muggle-borns. It wasn't always that way, her family was once known to be the most hateful wizards and witches to exist... I wasn't too sure when that had changed or why they disliked muggles so much, but it wasn't entirely my business.

"I'm fine Adeline. I'm glad Cedric came in there though," I said, quickly trying to cover up the dumb insult... it may have hurt just a bit, but I didn't need Adeline to go on a murderous rampage towards the Malfoys. Adeline shot me a quick look, and I realized it sounded like I didn't think she could hold her own, "Not because of that, because I think you would have hit him or something if it was just us in there."

I began to undress along with Adeline, she seemed to agree with my statement all too much. I slid the whole uniform on easily, including the temporary robes... until we got to the tie. My face dropped into uneasiness as I realized that it was an actual tie. Not like the clip-on one I had at Ilvermorny, I turned to Adeline to complain when I saw her knot it perfectly onto her neck. 

I looked down onto the Hogwarts emblem that sat on the black tie, and took a deep breath. Ibrought it up to my neck and looped it a few times like I had seen in the movies only to get a mini noose. I threw my hands to my side in defeat, that was when Adeline laughed loudly.

"Look, I've never had to wear a tie before, a real tie I mean! There's no need to make fun!" I said with a pout, "How did you know how to do it?"

"What do you mean you didn't ever need to tie a real tie before? You wore them every day at Ilvermorny!" Adeline could barely talk, she was laughing so hard.

"Uh, no! They were clip-on, that was different!" I said in all seriousness. I must have looked silly with my messed up tie as I put my hands on my hips in an attempt to be serious because when Adeline looked at me again she doubled over in laughter. When she caught her breath slightly, she stood up slightly.

"You mean the one, you got as a first-year? When you first started because you were 12?"

"Yeah?" I said confused.

"You- you were supposed t-to switch over to real ties after that first Christmas break!" Adeline yelled between laughs. I let a huge laugh escape my mouth as I realized what she was saying, I had been wearing a children's tie for the past 4 years. 

We continued to laugh like insane people for the next few moments before we pulled ourselves together. Afterward, Adeline helped straighten out my tie, unable to stop giggling the whole time. I wasn't sure how she didn't notice over those few years, we were even in the same dorm!

Adeline turned from me after I was finished and looked at herself in the mirror, "Does this look alright?"

I motioned for her to twirl in a circle and she did, lifting her arms into the air at the same time, "As hot as ever. I could get used to these uniforms. They're comfier than our old ones."

I turned to see Adeline stifle a laugh, and I pushed her lightly, "Addy shove off!"

Adeline regained herself and then flipped her hair over her shoulder in a prissy way. She looked at me batting her eyelashes while pulling arms to her hips in a model stance, "Time to get all the boys to swoon over the new girls."

We started laughing again loudly but quickly regained ourselves as three girls pushed through the door. One girl, in the front, with black hair and bangs framing her forehead turned towards Adeline with a glare that could kill a centaur. Adeline threw a confused glance at her as we walked out of the bathroom. 

She seemed rude, and I had half a mind to storm back in there and tell her off. Adeline pushed through the door, and I followed close behind. My blouse almost fell out of my arms as I closed the door gently.

"What was that about?" Adeline looked at me with an eyebrow raised.

"Maybe she's just jealous of how good we look," I said with a smile and a wink. We both started laughing again, not paying attention to the people who stared as they shimmied by us. We'd be getting a lot of attention over the next few weeks, people hardly EVER transferred wizarding schools unless under dire circumstances. When we finally reached our compartment with huge smiles on our faces, the twins looked up in sync from their book.

"What are you two smiling about?" Fred said with a growing smile.

"Oh ya know, just us being us," Adeline said with a chuckle.

"Well, you got here just on time." They said. I looked out the window to see the train slowing into a station. It looked like our adventure was just about to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was it? :) I'm super in love with this chapter because of all the CedricxAdeline content we got going on. That reminds me... ship names? Comment your thoughts below!  
> I hope you all appreciate the extra updates we've done because we've been having SO much fun working on this! Hopefully, chapters will keep flowing through, but your comments/votes/reads help us immensely! We love you so, so, so much and I hope you have an amazing day/evening!  
> Love, C


	5. The Sorting Ceremony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Lovelies! How is everyone feeling today? This chapter is a lot similar to Addy's POV but that's how it be sometimes... No TW today, and I hope this chapter fulfills all your desires :) ENJOY!

Adeline sat down just to get back up again as the boys rose from their seats. She grabbed her novel and threw it into her bag, I leaned over and grabbed mine as well. Fred and George led the way out of the compartment and through the hall. We were slightly held up as everyone was waking up at the same time.

We hopped out of the train onto a cute little station. Past the platform, a dark path with carriages sat. Street lamps lit up the place in a mysterious way, and I turned to see Adeline take a deep breath of air. It felt nice to be off the cramped train, although it was quite chilly.

"Wait guys, don't we have to get our trunks?" Adeline asked George and Fred as they walked off towards the student pathway.

"There's some sort of system that they go through which brings them up to the castle immediately. No work is required. C'mon now, got to catch up to a carriage," One of them said with a smile... they were too far away to tell. The student trail was packed but we eventually made it to the carriages. They were being pulled by nothing but, I assumed, pure magic.

The carriage ride was quite silent as we weaved around the forest. I was getting pretty tired until I saw Hogwarts in all its glory. I gasped and leaned close to the castle, the walls seemed to glow as it sat on the lake. The moon aligned behind it, making it seem especially large. It was astounding, I was speechless.

"Pretty nice, innit?"

"It's brilliant!" Adeline said, turning to see my mouth wide open, "Better than Ilvermorny you think?"

"Very much so," I nodded in amazement.

There was a long line of carriages at the castle. Students were hopping out of them and walking towards the big doors. Fred and George started to get out and motioned for us to do the same. George offered his hand, and I took it with a blush. I used the help to gently hop from the carriage onto the cobblestone pathway. I looked towards Adeline as she took a big step towards the school.

"Well, in we go."

We followed the huge crowd of students through the large stone castle way. When we finally made it through the doors I was in awe at how huge it was, it seemed even bigger inside than out! My stomach got a pang of nervousness as I realized how hard it was going to be to keep track of all the places within the large stone walls, but I quickly buried it. I didn't want nerves to ruin the exciting feeling I was getting right now.

"Ms. Finley, Ms. Bloom, is that you?"

Adeline and I turned to see an older lady standing right next to us. She had a witch hat on and green robes, she seemed quite stern. Adeline nodded hesitantly and the woman's face sprouted a big smile, "Welcome to Hogwarts ladies, I hope the train ride over was comfortable."

"Yes it was wonderful, thank you!" Adeline said a bit too enthusiastically. I thought it was splendid, other than the whole trunk incident of course. I wondered if maybe the professor had recognized us because we looked like our parents... all though it was probably due to the lack of a house color on our uniforms.

"Perfect, I'm Professor McGonagall, now would you two please follow me, I'll bring you to the great hall to be sorted with the first years." The Professor said while promptly ushering new students the correct way. My stomach dropped, so much for not letting nerves ruin the evening. What if I tripped while walking in front of all the students? Or passed out from dehydration and lack of food? I looked towards Addy who seemed just as nervous, "You can both give your bags to the twins and they will keep track of them."

She looked over me and Addy to give the boys a look. They followed her instructions and took the bags from us, and then said in unison, "You'll get them back, don't fret."

"Now follow me," McGonagall said while walking away calmly. I turned towards Adeline and she looked like she was about to pass out, she hadn't been this nervous at the last sorting ceremony at Ilvermorny. We stopped in front of a group full of twelve-year-olds. They were all talking amongst themselves but quickly quieted down once they saw the professor. They gave us a few sideways glances and I smiled at them nervously.

"Hello everyone. We will have the sorting ceremony take place in just a few minutes." She turned to Adeline and me, "You two will get sorted first."

She then walked down the hall to Merlin knows where. The first years again started talking in hushed whispers and it tempted us to do the same. Adeline turned to me and spoke, "Jules, I'm terrified right now."

I turned to her, eyebrows furrowed in concern. She was a nervous wreck, and I felt horrible for her. In an attempt of comfort, I brought my hand down to hold hers. She looked down at me and then back up at me with a smile, "Yeah I'm pretty nervous right now too."

"Yeah but I feel like I could puke at any moment."

"Well don't. That'll only make the situation worse when everyone staring at you with vomit down your shirt." I said quickly. I cringed slightly after saying it, I'm sure it must have been REAL comforting.

"Your hands are sweat-" Addy began, but I elbowed her gently before she could finish. Of course, my hands are sweaty, we were about to be at the full attention of many, many people! Her hands were just as sweaty, mind you!

McGonagall returned and motioned for us to follow her. I rushed to keep up with the group as we came up to a big hall, where four long tables were positioned in a row. Ahead of us sat a table horizontally, where adults were sitting. It seemed to be the professor's table. We were led to the left side of the room where the first years huddled like a bunch of awkward penguins, behind Adeline and me.

An older guy, who I recognized from the papers as the headmaster of Hogwarts, approached the magical podium. Wizarding newspapers were one of my parents' few exceptions of at-home magic. He wore extravagant silver robes that matched his grey beard, "Good evening students. Before we begin the feast, it is time for our annual sorting ceremony. Before we get the first years sorted, we will sort two transfer students from Ilvermorny. I trust that you will make them feel welcome in their new school."

All eyes turned towards us and I didn't really know what to do. I blushed and stared down at my shoes, and pretending all of them weren't wondering about every detail about our lives. Clapping enveloped the room only solidifying their presence, until McGonagall interjected, "Adeline Finley, you will go first."

Adeline looked at me hesitantly before following Professor McGonagall to a small stool sat. She picked up the hat gently and Adeline sat down. I watched as the hat got gently set on her brown hair, but her nervous frown had been replaced with a smile. I looked out into the crowd and saw Cedric smiling at her, a pang of sadness hit my chest as I immediately thought about the one boy who already hates me. I looked over the table until I saw his blonde hair sticking out from all the others. He seemed annoyed at the whole thing, but his eyes darted over to the group. We made eye contact and I swore his scowl slightly melted for just a second and I smiled. He was quick to replace it with another sneer and rolled his eyes away from me towards the boys next to him. I swallowed the rejection and then turned my attention back to Adeline, I held my breath as the hat became alive.

"Mmm yes very brave with a need to prove yourself. You will do anything to protect those of that which you love and care deeply for. You're loyal, yet cunning. Mm yes, okay, let it be... Gryffindor!" Adeline's face broke out into a smile. The Gryffindor table cheered loudly for their new addition and I joined in. I was so happy for her, I knew she would have succeeded anywhere but... I knew she was going to be so happy in her house.

McGonagall motioned for me to walk up next. My heart started pounding loudly, my parents would be proud of me no matter what house I was in... but I couldn't help but considering how much easier it would be to be in Gryffindor with Addy. I knew the hat would take into account my opinion, but I decided that I wanted to be sorted into the house I belonged in... not the one I thought was going to be the "best." I sat down quietly on the hat, attempting to not look at all the people staring at me. I made eye contact with Adeline and she smiled at me in confidence. I nodded in return as the hat slowly made contact with my head.

"Mmmm, I see... very difficult. A great kindness adorns you, almost as much as someone I once knew... Just and loyal, hardworking, and even patient! See this courage almost outshines them all! But that courage is for friends and family, reserved for those you love... I know it! Hufflepuff!" the hat yelled loudly. My face lit up as cheers came from the Hufflepuff table, I was so happy that I truly had all those traits.

My eyes darted toward the people I knew. Ron, Hermione, and Harry smiled at me, although when Ron whispered something to Hermione she elbowed him. The twins were too busy picking on Adeline to notice, but she seemed happy as well. I looked over to Hufflepuff, Cedric nodded his head in approval and I smiled even more. I was happy he thought the same of me!

I made my way to the table with a peppiness in my step, when my eyes darted over to the Slytherin table. Draco looked down, in what seemed to be shame... he obviously hadn't been paying attention to me. I needed to forget that one, and choose somebody I could get along with... like Cedric's friend! Or George was really sweet! Maybe even Ron... But despite my better judgment, my eyes still drifted back to the boy, the one everyone seemed to know so well. The one that I couldn't seem to figure out despite all I've heard.

Suddenly a few girls waved me over to where they sat with a smile. Probably the biggest benefit of being sorted into the kindest house was the people inside it. A huge smile adorned their faces and I speed walked over to sit down with them. The first girl stuck her hand out with a smile, "My name is Charlotte Lantenburg. But I like to be called Lottie!"

Her smile was the prettiest I had ever seen and her brown eyes sparkled with joy and confidence. She was extremely beautiful, her hair pulled back into a beautiful pattern of perfect braids... I wondered how she did them so expertly. I shook her hand and returned a genuine smile.

"My name is Juliet Bloom! It's amazing to meet you," I reiterated, although I was sure at least half the school knew our names. I turned to the other girl who was also smiling, she had straight black hair and a Norwegian accent.

"I'm Maryann! I'm super happy you were sorted into Hufflepuff, I was hoping you were going to be joining us," Mary said with a big grin.

"Do you happen to play quidditch?" Lottie said and I turned to face her, she seemed a little desperate to know.

"Yes, back at Ilvermorny! I used to play on Pukwudgie as a chaser and a keeper, only as a stand-in though..." I said with a smile. Lottie's face lit up and she grew a devious smile.

"This is perfect! Cedric was just whining about us needing a new chaser, you should try out! You're good right?" Lottie asked leaning down as if to keep it a secret. I smiled and gave a bit of a nod yes. And she fist-pumped the air.

"Maybe we'll actually win this year," Maryann said with a bit of a giggle and Lottie narrowed her eyes.

"You know good and well it was only because Cedric got hit by the stupid Slytherin beater! Otherwise, that game would have been in the bag... remember we won that game against the Gryffindor team too! And don't you dare say it was because of the dementors distracting Harry, Oliver said that the win was fair and square," Lottie ranted with passion. Maryann laughed loudly at her scramble to defend the team, and I joined in slightly. I looked over at Cedric and saw him joking around with his friends, he must be the star player... just Adeline's type.

The sorting got done quickly, and it was quite the ordeal. A few Hufflepuffs joined the table and I cheered along with Lottie and Maryann. I was happy in my spot but I wondered how sleeping arrangements were... at Ilvermorny everyone got to choose where they wanted to stay, sleeping wise, and I hoped it was the same here.

"Now we're all settled in and sorted, I'd like to make an announcement. This castle will not only be your home this year but home to some very special guests as well. You see Hogwarts has been chosen..."

The headmaster paused his speech when an older man started running loudly in between the tables. His legs were raised high up in the air as each foot leaped off the ground. I heard a few giggles and murmurs arise from the students as we watched him... run? It didn't look like running, more like an elongated hop. He "ran" up to the podium and whispered something in the headmaster's ear before running off again back down the aisle in his comical way. I almost laughed, but I actually felt slightly bad for him... it looked like he was just doing his job.

"So Hogwarts has been chosen to host a legendary event. The Tri-Wizard tournament. Now for those of you who do not know, the tri-wizard tournament brings together three schools for a series of magical contests. From each school, a single contestant is selected to compete.

Now let me be clear, if chosen you stand alone. And trust me when I say these contests are not for the faint-hearted but more of that later. For now please join me in welcoming the lovely ladies of the Beauxbatons Academy of magic and their headmistress Madame Maxime."

Ilvermorny had participated in the Triwizard tournament the year before we were enrolled. Our parents even went to watch the final challenge, but we weren't allowed to watch due to the intensity of the games. Murmurs slightly rose from the students as the door burst open with flair.

In pranced a group of girls in baby blue outfits. They danced down the aisle and blue butterflies were released into the air. They took a few steps before bowing and making "aw" sounds in front of the boys. Ron and Harry being one of the lucky few. They finished making their way to the front to do a final bow with a girl in silver and pink doing flips and cartwheels. A very tall woman walked down the row behind them and stood at the front with her students.

"And now our friends from the north, please greet the proud sons of Durmstrang and the high master Igor Karkaroff."

I turned around again along with the rest of the student body to hear staffs hitting the ground and shouting following it. Multiple older boys walked down the aisle now while twisting and twirling around their staffs. Every time they hit the floor, red sparks flew out from the bottom. I recognised Victor Krum in the bunch and excitement rustled in my chest. I looked over to see Ron, his face dropping in pure astonishment.

Maryann looked like she was panicking, while Lotti tried to hide her excitement. As a major quidditch fan, I believe it probably her whole soul not to pass out onto the floor. A boy who had made his way to the front of the hall, kneeled down and blew a fire dragon out of his wand. Greetings were made between our headmaster, and Durmstrangs headmaster.

"Now that they have been introduced, you may enjoy your feast!"

Suddenly, multiple piles of food appeared on the table and hands were instantly grabbing at the items. My mouth instantly watered and I wanted to cry, there was so much food! It looked absolutely delicious and I immediately reached for the chicken that was mere inches away from my plate. I ate unashamed at my appetite as every bit filled me a bit more, eventually ending with some odd yellow pudding.

"Your attention please! I would like to say a few words. Eternal glory, that is what awaits the student who wins the tri-wizard tournament. But to do this that student must survive three tasks. Three extremely dangerous tasks." Dumbledore had silenced the room from conversation, but students were still freely eating, I happened to have already stuffed myself to the brim in the last few minutes.

"For this reason the ministry has seen fit to impose a new rule. To explain all this we have the head of the department of international magic cooperation Mister Bartimus Crouch."

Thunder broke out above the great hall along with rain and some students screaming. I gasped in surprise and stared up at the ceiling. A quick magical spell was cast upwards and the weather immediately stopped.The room went silent as we watched the man make his way up front. He looked very intimidating, limping over to Dumbledore while some mechanical eye scanned the room. He reminded me of the one guy in "Treasure Planet."

"My dear old friend, thanks for coming."

"That stupid roof." He said while swigging a drink from a mysterious flask. He seemed to cringe a bit at the taste... did they allow people to drink alcohol in the castle? Perhaps it was just water...

"After much deliberation the ministry has concluded that for their own safety, no student under the age of seventeen shall be allowed to put forth their name for the tri-wizard tournament. This decision is final."

This did not sit well with the students, many of them started booing in disappointment. Cedric looked down in a bit of shame, and I realized that the other schools sat quiet and respectful at the news. I heard the twins yell in unison, "That's rubbish!"

"Silence!" The whole hall was hushed rather quickly, when the headmaster yelled over the students loudly. He cast a spell over a large box that sat at the front of the room and it started to melt into a blue and silver goblet. It was quite pretty, my eyes widened as I leaned closer to the glowing trophy.

"The goblet of fire. Anyone wishing to submit themselves for the tournament must merely write their name upon a piece of parchment and throw it in the flame before this hour on Thursday night. Do not do so lightly, if chosen there's no turning back. As from this moment the tri-wizard tournament has begun."

The older man retreaded back to the headmaster's throne-like chair. Upset murmurs arose from the students once again and I was a bit confused, why was everyone wanting to join a death game? I mean Quidditch was barely a thrill I could handle. And I thought the twins were 17 in the first place! I wondered who was going to be chosen and slightly hoped it wasn't anyone we knew personally... or at least the task wasn't TOO dangerous, like a pit of dragons or something crazy like that! I don't believe they were that crazy though... were they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, yes they are that crazy... What do you all think of Lottie and Maryann? I'm really excited to get to the quidditch scenes with Lottie and Cedric :)   
> DID YOU GUESS THE RIGHT HOUSES? If so, comment down below and I'll give you a high-five :)  
> What did you think of the chapter? Don't forget to comment/kudo/ and share if you enjoyed it... don't feel pressured though. Your reads are all we need :)  
> Anyway, I love and appreciate you all and I hope you have an amazing day/evening!  
> Love, C


	6. Dancing in the Moonlight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Lovelies, this one is extremely different from Adeline's POV. I would recommend reading both ofc, no TW enjoy :)

Dinner was over quite quickly but I was caught up in my conversation about Quidditch with the girls. We were discussing the world cup and Viktor when I noticed Adeline approaching the table awkwardly. I waved her over with a smile and I noticed Lottie and Maryann doing the same. Most of the people had already left but we must have been too distracted to notice.

"Hey, I just wanted to give you your bag before I leave. McGonagall said I needed to choose someone to show me around so the twins have accepted that position," Adeline said with a slight annoyance in her voice, while handing me my bag over the table. I set it underneath the bench with a grateful smile, but not before I slid my willow wand out of the front pocket. I had almost forgotten all about it!

"Oh, Cedric will probably show you around since he's a prefect," Maryann said while shifting her gaze to the boy. I assumed one of the older prefects had taken the younger Hufflepuffs because they were nowhere to be found.

"Uh yeah sure!" I smiled at them again before turning to Adeline who stood like a stick. She was super uncomfortable but I wasn't entirely sure why "Thanks for bringing my bag."

"Yeah, of course, are you doing okay?" She lowered her voice in seriousness again and looked at my friends in wariness. Adeline, a very trusting creature that one...

"Oh yeah, I'm good. Glad to be here," I smiled while the girls next to me chuckled, I gave them a quick little glare before turning to Addy again, "Are you okay in Gryffindor?"

"Yeah definitely. The twins are nice to have, aside from the constant teasing," She said with a smile. I giggled a bit as I, of course, knew what it was about. I checked and saw Cedric still laughing with his friends a few meters down the table.

"You mean the Cedric teasing?" I said with a bit of an eyebrow wiggle. She looked at Lottie and Maryann with an uncomfortable smile. She really shouldn't be so worried, they were quite kind... and it wasn't exactly a secret.

"Yeah...that teasing," she blushed slightly and a smile appeared on her face.

"Wait! You like Cedric?" Lottie said with an excited smile, eyes darting back and forth between Cedric and Addy.

"More like Cedric fancies her," I said with a bit of a smirk, Addy smiled awkwardly again.

"Ooo the new Gryffindor and the Hufflepuff prefect, how exciting!" Lottie said again with a mischievous smile.

"Uh, yeah...anyway, I should get going. I have the twins waiting in the hall, I just wanted to make sure you were comfortable," Adeline said, desperate to leave the situation. She was quite awkward around people, and I gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Yeah, I'm all good! I'll see you later Adeline." I said as she quickly rose from the bench she had perched on a few minutes before. My eyes widened as I realized that she was about to run into a certain someone. I brought my hand up and began to say something before she had already collided with the tall figure. Cedric looked a bit taken back as he brought his hands down to steady her, but he quickly smiled at the sight of her face.

"Sorry Adeline, I was coming to get Juliet for the tour," He was laughing a little in between his words and it only made Adeline's blush deepen. She stood there not saying a thing and Cedric stood there waiting for any sort of response.

"It looks like Cedric isn't the only one crushing," Lottie whispered into my ear and I covered my laugh with a bit of a cough.

"Are you okay?" He asked while looking down at her with a bit of worry on his face. Addy seemed to realize just then that she was actually supposed to speak to the boy and she was able to push out a weak response.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry Cedric," She turned slightly to see us all smiling amongst ourselves. We were quite happy with the situation she was in right now... they should've just kissed right then and there.

"I've got to go," Adeline said quickly and practically ran away from Cedric. Looking like Filch... Jiminy Christmas. I mentally facepalmed myself for Addy and then looked up at Cedric, he seemed a bit confused but then turned his attention towards me again.

"Are you ready?"

"Definitely," I said with a smile as I grabbed my bag and put it over my shoulder.

"Can I join you?" Lottie said with a smile. She didn't really wait for an answer as she stood up with me. Maryann smiled and sent a nod towards the boys Cedric had just separated from, she was going with them I suppose.

"Follow me," Cedric said with a slight nod before heading out the door with us in pursuit. I thought it was kind of Lottie to join us, she had already seen the castle to most of its extent but still decided to tag along. As we left the doors a scream erupted from a bit down the hallway, my eyes shot up as I searched for its source... I recognized it to be Addy's.

When I found her, she was scolding the twins for frightening her. I turned to see Lottie and Cedric sharing a chuckle over the situation, but I just smiled in amusement. She was going to have a fun year with those two. Adeline turned to look in our direction, following the twin's gaze. I shrugged at her in answer to her mental question. Yeah, Cedric had seen that whole ordeal.

We turned down a separate hallway, where not many people were walking. It was quiet for a bit until Lottie whispered in my ear for the second time that night, "They'd be adorable together! Now we just gotta find you a suitable match!"

She laughed it off as a joke but in my mind, I knew that I had already chosen someone... I had only talked to him twice! Even in those conversations, I hadn't even said an actual word to his face. I truly didn't understand why I couldn't get his smug smile out of my mind.

______

We had toured a lot of the school and I had hardly remembered a single thing. It was quite amazing how big the castle was but it was incredibly hard to remember it all. Lottie had spoken almost the whole time, sharing stories about each place and warning me about the dangers of others. Not many things happened, that was until we reached our common room.

We walked towards the dining hall again, before turning down a couple of ramps. We eventually reached a dimly lit hallway that housed many large portraits of different foods. One huge painting stood at the end of the hallway and Cedric smiled as I eyed it in wonder.

"Watch this," He said with a smile, before reaching up and lightly running his fingers over the large green pear in the corner. The image changed and shifted into a physical knob, Cedric pulled on it and it opened into a huge kitchen. It was filled to the brim with food and pastries, and I gaped at the large space. Cedric laughed at my astonishment and turned to Lottie, "Great, we got another lover of food!"

Lottie laughed and pushed the portrait closed again. Suddenly, she gasped and dragged me towards a bunch of barrels in a small nook on the right-hand side of the corridor. We went behind the stack to see a bunch of huge barrels that were in the wall, their tops sticking out slightly.

"You think that's cool? Watch this!" She rapped her knuckle on the middle barrel in a pattern that I was unfamiliar with, and the top swung open. I peered inside to see a wide tunnel, it's only light coming from the magical yellow glow emitting from the wooden walls. The bottom of the tunnel had a soft, yellow, plush to it, in what I assumed to keep your knees from scraping on the wooden floor. It was quite large and could easily fit two people crawling side by side through it, while the height was just as comfortable.

Lottie looked like she was about to crawl through when Cedric pushed the top closed. We both looked at him in confusion and he smiled before he started to explain.

"You need to tap the middle barrel, two from the bottom. Tap it in the rhythm of "Helga Hufflepuff" and it will open without trouble! Although I recommend you don't do it wrong, the consequences are quite unpleasant," Cedric said with what seemed to be a knowing cringe.

I took a gulp and walked towards the barrel he had tapped. The large barrels formed a five by four square, so you had to count them to be sure it was the right barrel in the first place. I found it and took a deep breath before knocking on it, mumbling 'Helga Hufflepuff' to be sure I got it right. The door decided to take a dramatic second before swinging open, and I smiled in triumph.

I looked towards Cedric and he motioned for Lottie and me to head in before closing the door loudly behind us. I was a bit confused as to why he wasn't entering the room with us but I turned around again to catch up to Lottie who was already sliding out the other side. I pushed my bag through first, before switching my body, so that my legs went down first... I think it would have been quite embarrassing to go careening headfirst out of the entranceway.

I picked up my bag and dusted my knees before looking up... my mouth immediately fell open, "Woah."

Lottie smiled in pride as my eyes scanned the room. The area was filled with warm light from the fireplace, while multiple big round windows were dark from outside but still provided a slight warmth from them... they magically lit up the room with a warm light. Long grass and flowers shook in the wind from outside, their shadow forming on the yellow rug. A large portrait of who I assumed to be Helga Hufflepuff sat over the large fireplace and smiled warmly upon my arrival. A large, honey-colored, wooden, mantelpiece with badgers carved in it sat underneath the lady.

The room itself had a low ceiling and was round, with two separate round doorways on each side of the fireplace that opened into a network of underground tunnels. I assumed they led to the dorms. Many plants hung from the ceiling, shelves along the wall, and windowsills. Some of them were moving on their own and some just seeming to be normal house plants. There was even a tank in the corner that had various seaweeds growing in it.

I turned my attention to the furniture. There were multiple yellow and black overstuffed sofas, loveseats, and chairs littered across the common room. One or two desks and night tables sat beside copper lamps, littered with plants. Quilts hung on the wall in decoration or were thrown on the multiple chairs, pillows lied on the ground near the fire. Vines grew along the wooden walls from their original plants, and in one corner a single burner sat. A copper tea kettle lied next to several packets of warm drinks, coffee cake, and 2 large barrels of something.

"This... is amazing," I said while still scanning the beautiful room in awe. Lottie smiled and nodded in agreement, she spun around and landed on the sofa that was directly across from the fire. I sat down next to her and felt the softness of the seat in amazement.

"It's good to be home," Lottie said with a smile before leaning her head onto my shoulder with a sigh. The heat from the fire was perfect, and I was sure that I would never be cold in a place like this. I smiled and agreed with her statement. It really did feel like home.

After a bit of relaxing, Lottie got up reluctantly and grabbed my hand, "I better show you to your dorm!"

We pushed through the door on the right-hand side of the fireplace and entered the first tunnels. Roots broke through the sides of the walls but not a single creature was to be seen, at least from what I could see in the dimly lit walkway. We turned left at a forkway and then walked to the last door in that section. Lottie opened it with ease, to see a cozy little room.

This room also a\had a few windows that poked out into the night. Plants decorated the sills and shelves, a small fireplace sat at the far left, just as in the common room. Another round doorway branched off into what I assumed was a bathroom and shower. Four beds sat in a half-circle around the round room, each accompanied by a small night table, a copper lamp, a copper bed warmer hanging above the headboard, and a yellow and black patch quilt as a bed cover.

I noticed my trunk sitting at the end of the second to last bed, along with Tito who seemed to be sleeping peacefully. I also noticed that one bed beside me had not been filled, Lottie moved by me and flopped down on the bed right next to mine that had the trunk beneath it.

"Maryann and I volunteered first to share dorms with you right before the quarter started, so Professor Sprout thought that in rewards we could have an empty bed! So it's just the three of us this year," Lottie explained while she moved her handbag to her bedside table. I walked over and did the same, careful to not wake Tito up. There was still plenty of space on the table, which I smiled at. It would be perfect to place my books.

"Are you allergic to cats?" Lottie asked quickly before unlocking a kennel. I smiled and shook my head no, and she beamed, "Good! Kalatheme is very sweet, you'll probably like her a lot!"

Out ran a large puffy grey cat and I smiled. I happened to love cats so I took this as an absolute win. I realized that I hadn't introduced my animal yet so I walked over to him gently, "My chameleon's name is Tito! I understand it may seem like a silly name, it's more muggle than witch related."

Lottie lunged over her bed in curiosity to look at my chameleon in his little enclosure. Luckily, he wasn't going to grow any bigger than what he was now, which is pretty tiny.

"I've never seen a chameleon in real life before, could I hold him sometime?" She asked in wonderment as she stared into the misty ball that held Tito captive.

"Of course! He's quite friendly, although he likes to crawl up your arms," I said with a smile. I looked towards Maryann's trunk and bed which was next to Lottie's, she didn't seem to have any animals.

"Maryann has animals at home and a family owl! She owns a dog, but since they aren't allowed at Hogwarts she can't bring him in," Lottie explained when she saw me look towards Mary's bed. Whoever made that rule was absolutely bonkers, who wouldn't want dogs at Hogwarts?

I had heard Lottie talk about the owlery as we were taking the tour with Cedric so I figured that was where our owls were, seeing as how her cage was empty and resting at the end of my new bed. I then lied on my bed absolutely exhausted, and Lottie turned to me with a grin on her face.

"Are you ready to have some fun?"

"Fun? Doesn't curfew end in a little bit?" I said while turning to face her with confusion on my face.

"Well yes but there was somewhere I wanted to take you before the night ended," Lottie said with a devious smile.

"And where would that be?" I asked her with a smile of curiosity.

"You said you liked stars right?" Lottie asked and I nodded, "Well then it's a secret!"

I groaned as she hopped up and began pulling me off the bed. All I really wanted to do was sleep, I suppose that was going to have to wait. We rushed through the common room greeting people along the way until we had reached the other side of the entranceway.

Lottie turned to me and grumbled, "We won't have enough time to go where I wanted to take you... oh well, we'll just have to make do with the courtyard!"

"Courtyard?" I asked, I was so confused. She didn't really answer but instead pulled me along with her down multiple hallways. We were walking quite fast, presumably because the curfew was about to take place soon.

"Come on, we have to hurry!" Lottie said while grabbing my hand and rushed out of a door that was closing. We were able to barely slide past it, as it slowly closed by magic. I looked at it out of breath, wondering how we were going to get back in.

"I didn't really think about that... One of the prefects always check to be sure everyone left the courtyard... we'll have to ask them for help," Lottie said with an apologetic face, but I looked past her into the space that occupied the middle of the outer hallways. I smiled and realized why she had decided to show me this now.

There were millions of lights twinkling throughout the small courtyard, all emitting from little pixie-like creatures. They obviously weren't pixies, as their faces resembled humans, and they smiled kindly at us. I walked into the grass with a huge smile on my face, I explored the small courtyard lit up by the soft yellow, pink, and light blue lights...

"Fairies, they are quite sensitive to judgment. So they hideout until dark, when everyone has left the courtyard. Seeing as this is their home Professor Dumbledore likes to close the doors to help them feel comfortable," Lottie smiled at one particular fairy, and she came down on top of her finger gracefully. They seemed to know each other as they slightly touched foreheads. I looked at the huge tree, following up to see a figure with blonde hair speaking to the small creatures.

"Hello, there," The girl said in a soft voice as she realized that we were looking at her. She slid down the tree with a smile on her face, "Beautiful creatures, aren't they? Very talkative."

I turned to Lottie and she seemed just as surprised as I did. The girl smiled as one of the fairies landed on her head, a jingling bell-like sound came from the fairy making her smile and focus her attention on me.

"You're new here, my name is Luna Lovegood. You're going to have a great time at Hogwarts," Luna lowered her voice and leaned closer to us, "Especially since the fairies like you, good luck always comes to those they like."

"You can speak fairy?" Lottie said with astonishment. Luna grew a bit of a far off look before nodding at us slightly.

"It isn't that hard when you have the right tools," Luna said, proceeding to pull a small shell out of her ear, "I have a few more if you'd like?"

"Are you sure?" Lottie asked, but Luna already began to pull two small items out of her pocket. One was a light pink, and the other a lightly swirled purple. She held out her hand as if to give them to us, "Thank you!"

Lottie was the first to grab the light pink one, she gently put it into her ear and her face lit up. She turned to us in wonderment as her eyes darted around, "I can hear them!"

I looked at Luna and then put the round object in my right ear gently. Suddenly all the little bell noises turned into light singing, I could now tell that some of the fairies were dancing along to the tune.

Caught beforehand

Falling forward

All in front of us

Light bestowed

The heavens open

Was it obvious?

I recognized the song immediately, it was one of the last songs I had listened to before getting on the train to London. I turned to Luna in a bit of confusion, and she smiled lightly, "Is this song from you? It is quite lovely, I haven't heard it before."

"Yes, it's one of my favorites. But it's a muggle song how do they..." I trailed off as a light pink fairy hovered in front of my face, She smiled and giggled, her flower petal dress flowing around her in rhythm to the soft song. She leaned her head towards mine and Luna spoke up.

"She wants to thank you for the song. They like it greatly," Luna said softly. I remembered what Lottie did earlier, I connected my forehead with the small fairy for a second. Warmth and happiness spread through my face and I couldn't help laughing in pure joy.

"Fairies are quite musically and beauty oriented beings. They have the special ability to hear the songs that are stuck in people's heads," Luna said with another far off smile. The fairy left my forehead and lightly flew off to join the other dancing ones, "They believe that you two are quite beautiful as well."

I wasn't sure where she was getting this information, as all I could hear was their singing and giggles. Lottie giggled again as some fairies twirled her around with the sweet music, and I smiled. Luna began to lightly sway with some fairies as well. Two more flew up to my face and I went along with it as they lightly pushed my hands up in an attempt to get me to dance.

The music seemed to take over the courtyard and the tune changed. Into a lighter, peppier, song that I didn't really recognize. Luna began twirling and dancing with the fairies, along with Lottie and me. I laughed as I felt pure joy coursing through my body. We eventually formed a circle, which I had read about fairy circles before in Ilvermorny. We laughed and twirled in the motion of the round shape, the world seemed to stop.

Suddenly, the sound of a large door opening made all of the fairies stop their singing. In fright, they squealed and flew up and out of the courtyard. We were left in just the moonlight, all of us turned towards the now opened door. I could tell that it was Cedric's figure and my heart rate slowed down a bit.

"What are you three doing here? Curfew is in 15 minutes!" Cedric whisper yelled. I looked at Lottie and Luna in shock. There was no way we were going to make it to the common rooms in time, and I really didn't want to get in trouble on the first day of school.

"Come on then!" Cedric motioned for us to run. We began a light jog until we re-entered the brightly lit hallway. Luna looked to the left as we Hufflepuffs looked towards the right. I realized then that Luna must have been a Ravenclaw, signified by her blue attire. Cedric turned to Luna and placed a light hand on her shoulder.

"Do you think you can make it there on time?" He asked with seriousness, laced behind his words.

"I have my ways, no need to worry about me," Luna said with a light smile, "Will you be able to make it in time?"

"We'll have too," Cedric said with a sigh, but then accompanied it with a smile as if it was a challenge. Luna was already skipping away, as if Ravenclaw Tower was a few meters away. My attention was pulled back to our group when Cedric spoke, "Consider this part of your quidditch tryout."

"How did you know I played-" I was interrupted as he pulled on my arm and we started sprinting down the hall at an alarming pace. We slid around the corner, I was just following Cedric because I had no idea where the heck we were. Lottie picked up the pace a bit, her robes flying back behind her, evening the pace with Cedric.

"Does this count as part of my tryout as well?" She said in between breaths. I wasn't even sure how she was talking, I was keeping up nicely but I still couldn't breathe. Cedric suddenly stopped and motioned us closer to the wall. I could now see the staircase we had to run around, we weren't too far from the common room!

A man dressed in long black robes, with shoulder-length greasy black hair walked by with a look of disgust. Behind him trailed the Slytherin prefects and a younger Gryffindor, he was the only one to see us as we huddled next to the wall. His eyes widened but then he quickly turned forward again as if not to see us, and I let out a shaky breath.

We waited there for a few more seconds until their footsteps echoed a little bit down the hall. Cedric turned around towards us slightly, and then motioned for us to sneak across the hall. Cedric led the way, silently crouch-running across the hallway in front of the staircase with ease. Lottie followed closely behind, and soon it was my turn.

I took a deep breath and copied their actions, but when I barely made it to the other side I tripped on my long robes. I held my breath as my body flew out towards Lottie, both of us tumbling backward. The footsteps from down the hall stopped, and I heard a younger voice from down the hall.

"What is it?"

Cedric helped both of us up and we held our breath, I mouthed sorry to Cedric and he smiled with a shrug.

"Nothing," A deeper monotone voice drew out in a bit of hesitance. Soon the footsteps started back up again, still leading far away from us. Cedric smiled and we began to run again, around the staircase, down a few stone ramps, and through the barrels. Lottie tapped in the code, I jumped through first.

Lottie came in second and then Cedric shut the door last. In my rush, I forgot about the drop from the tunnel and flew forward headfirst. My legs flew over my head and I landed on a pillow in a humph. I quickly got up to let Cedric and Lottie slide down, we all stood there looking at each other in amazement and breathing hard when Lottie finally spoke up.

"Did, did we make it?" She said looking at Cedric. Suddenly a large chime came from a clock in the common room and Cedric chuckled. We made it!

I laughed and quickly the other two joined in. Lottie and I did a big high five before I turned to Cedric, "Am I still eligible for the team?"

"You were eligible way before we had to run halfway across the castle and avoid a talk with Snape within 15 minutes," Cedric laughed slightly, he had caught his breath quite quickly.

"It's about time you got here," we turned to see the boy who had been on the train with us with a large smirk on his face. I suddenly realized all the people looking at us with big smiles plastered on their faces, Maryann's being one of them. I must have looked ridiculous all out of breath, I realized my hair was probably a hug poof by now. I brought my hand up to my head and pulled the frizzy mess into a low bun.

"I don't believe we've met... besides on the train of course," the boy smiled at me, "I'm Pierre McCoy."

"Nice to meet you, Pierre. I'm Juliet Bloom, although you probably know that by now," I said with a smile. He was really cute and seemed quite kind. He returned it and then seemed to notice Cedric standing nearby.

"Darn it, McCoy, you're a doctor not a Hufflepuff," I muttered slightly to myself, as he turned to Cedric to start talking about something else.

"What did you just say?" Lottie said with confusion written over her face. I didn't realize how close she was, and I jumped slightly when she spoke.

"Oh! It's from a muggle TV show I like to watch, it's about- you know what nevermind, it was stupid," I said, suddenly realizing why Addy usually did the introductions. Lottie snickered slightly and my face reddened a bit.

"... and she plays quidditch," I heard Cedric finish to Pierre and he turned to smile at me.

"Planning on joining the team newbie?" Pierre said with a bit of a chuckle. I nodded and Lottie got excited.

"We're gonna win this year," Lottie said with a bit of a cheer. She hadn't even seen me play yet but had already decided I was the best out of all of them.

"I'm going to have to see for myself before I start planning the victory party," Pierre joked. Great, now they were expecting me to be amazing... I was good, but I didn't think I was overly talented at the sport.

"She's gonna knock your socks off, just you wait Pierre!" Lottie said with determination. Pierre and Cedric laughed, before turning to head for the boy's dorms.

"We'll have to see about that," Pierre said with a wink towards us and I rolled my eyes slightly, "Goodnight girls!"

"Goodnight, Cedric... and Pierre," Lottie said with a bit of sass as they walked through the door, "You are good right? I just bet my dignity on this and I don't like losing. Especially to McCoy."

I laughed and shook my head, "I guess you'll just have to see for yourself!"

We began to make our way to our rooms and I yawned loudly. I just wanted to sleep and Lottie seemed to be the same way, we opened our door and then pushed into the cozy room. I immediately laid onto my bed, kicking my shoes off in the process. Lottie began to grab PJs out and I realized I should probably do the same thing. I got back up again and then went into my bag to grab my phone, so I could put it in my nightstand.

As I leaned over the opening of my bag a large flash sounded and I was blinded by yellow. My eyes were closed but I could feel a powder coating my face and I sputtered out a bit of the dust that happened to get into my mouth. Lottie started cackling, and without saying a word I walked into the bathroom to look in a mirror.

My face was covered in gold glitter and a light yellow powder. A small little piece of parchment comically stuck to my forehead. I peeled it off and read the cursive lettering, a smile grew along my face before I laughed loudly throwing my head back in joy.

"Congrats on Hufflepuff, Bloom! Don't think that makes you exempt from our friendship, this is just the beginning. Welcome to Hogwarts, home of the Weasleys!" The letters danced while a small jester wheeled on a unicycle through the words. As soon as I had finished reading it, the parchment tore itself up leaving no evidence of its presence.

I sighed as I realized the mess the prank had made. I grabbed a cloth next to the sink and started scrubbing my face, it didn't take too long to get the yellow powder off but the glitter took a bit more convincing. There were still a few sparkles in my hairline, but as I tried to pick it off it would just restick to my forehead. I grumbled slightly and walked back into the dorm again.

"Let me guess... the twins?" Maryann asked now standing in the doorway with a sympathetic smile. I nodded in response and Lottie smiled.

"At least you're on their good side, otherwise they wouldn't have done such a small trick! It means you'll be picked on a bunch more than most, but the pranks will be quite forgiving... remember when they turned your hair a bright yellow a few years ago Maryann!" Lottie snickered.

"Trust me... I remember. Crabbe picked on me about it for a week straight," Maryann groaned at the memory.

"Crabbe fancies her," Lottie chuckled and Maryann laughed.

"Well, he sure does have a way with words then. 'What's up mustard headed blood traitor'... how romantic," Maryann sarcastically swooned and I laughed. I then proceeded to unhook my trunk and take out some flannel pants and a black tank top. I got ready for bed while Lottie and Maryann talked about Crabbe and his friends.

"When do we get schedules?" I asked as I finally slid into the warm, extremely comfortable bed.

"Tomorrow morning they'll hand them out at breakfast," Maryann said with a smile.

The rest of the night went by quite quickly, and I was quick to fall into a deep sleep. It was mostly nonsense until a certain boy had decided to take me by the hands and dance around the fairy riddled courtyard. I laughed happily and a genuine smile crawled across his face, he was happy. My heart strained to see that smile in person, despite the challenges it could hold. What's a little pain if it'll end up in happiness?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> brb crying
> 
> On a serious note, G and I have noticed that some books are extremely similar to ours. We wanted to make an announcement and say that this work wasn't inspired by any others. We created this on our own without any outside help.  
> Honest opinions? Kudo? Comment?  
> If you got the Star Trek reference from earlier I will literally marry you right now. Juliet sometimes gives me so much Peter Parker vibes I want to cry.  
> Is there anyone/anything you would like to see over the course of this novel?  
> Adeline's POV can be found here :) @g_afy03  
> Love you all and thanks for tuning in! Remember DMs and Inbox are always open.  
> Love, C


	7. Threats or Curses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, Lovelies! Enjoy the chapter today, it's very similar to Addy's POV. No TW :)

I woke up to the sound of a coo-coo clock going crazy across the room. I rolled over in a huff before the smell of pumpkin pasties drifting through the air, I shot my head up and saw the others do the same.

“It gets me every single time,” Lottie said with a grumble before rolling out of bed. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about but Maryann nodded in agreement.

“I thought we ate in the great hall?” I said with a large yawn, I had slept well but 6:30 was pretty early. Especially with the time zone shift, my body was still getting used to European time and it was not treating me well.

“We do, but there's a special flutterby bush in the common room,” Lottie explained while fixing her bed, “Instead of once a century, the flowers bloom every morning for a few hours. As you may know, they emulate the scent that attracts the unwary… which this early in the morning is usually some sort of food.”

I nodded in understanding, but honestly, I was too tired to understand what the heck she was saying. I rolled out of bed and then proceeded to stretch, letting out another yawn. Everyone was silent in an early morning haze, I pulled up the yellow and black quilt that adorned the bed and straightened my pillow. I did my usual morning routine, I even considered adding eyebrows and mascara to my look for the day. But when I noticed neither of the other girls doing the same thing, I decided to do a light brown mascara for an extremely natural look instead of the usual black.

I groaned as I realized I didn’t have my robes yet, and I turned towards the girls. They were both slipping on their grey sweaters, yellow trimming lining the sides.

“I don’t have the uniform yet,” I sat back down on my bed, beginning to finally wake up. The stupid flutterby bush was making me starving, and I didn’t really look forward to having to wear the exact opposite thing as everyone else again.

“Really? I got mine the night I got sorted... It must be because you're new, I’d ask either Professor Sprout or Professor McGonagall as she usually takes responsibility for the first years,” Lottie said as she adjusted her hood.

I sighed to myself and put on some more low-key looking clothes. Hopefully, people wouldn’t notice at breakfast and I’d be fine. I then decided to do something different with my hair than a bun, I went over to the mirror and pulled the curly mess into a high ponytail. I’d have to take a shower soon, because the mess wasn’t gonna look half this good by the end of the day.

“You didn’t tell us you snored Bloom,” Lottie snickered and I turned to look at her with a bit of offense on my face.

“I don’t snore!” I said with a bit of astonishment in my voice, Addy hadn’t said anything about it when we shared a dorm.

“Sure you don’t…” Maryann chimed in with a teasing look. I did a quick sarcastic smile before turning back to the mirror and fixing my hair again.

“I don’t have any textbooks, we didn’t get a chance to go shopping for them,” I said, I was a complete mess and it was only the first day. I slipped my wand in my pocket carefully, I love my wan greatly and it had gotten me out of many tough situations.

“I suppose you’ll just have to use classroom ones, until you get new ones,” Lottie said with a reassuring smile before closing her trunk lightly. Maryann had just finished tying her shoes, which were extremely cute compared to my mary-jane styled ones, so she stood up and did a quick spin.

“Off I go then, I’ll see you guys at the table? Or would you like me to wait for you in the common room?” She asked while slowly walking through the door into the tunnel.

“Go ahead, I know you're hungry,” Lottie rolled her eyes and Maryann laughed.

“Thanks, you’re such a good friend,” And with that, she left.

It didn’t take too long until Lottie and I both were ready, and left the small room. She strode out into the common room with confidence, despite the number of people bustling around the cozy place. I didn’t realize how many people were actually in Hufflepuff, there were tons of people watering plants (arguing with some stubborn cactuses), fixing hair, and chuckling with friends. Lottie occasionally would touch someone's shoulder with a quick greeting before we reached the exit.

Luckily, the walk to the great hall was extremely quick since the common room was right next to the kitchens. When Lottie and I walked through the open doorway I was a bit surprised to see that there were no house tables. It seemed like people could sit wherever they wanted, and leave whenever they wished too as well. A few early morning people already exited the hall as we entered with a clump of students just arriving.

I scanned the great hall in search of Adeline or any of the Gryffindors I knew, but there weren't many from that house even there yet. It was probably because they were in a tower a little bit away from here, and breakfast had just started 15 minutes ago. I followed Lottie over to what was the Hufflepuff table last night and sat down next to her. Maryann was talking to Pierre and Cedric was speaking too multiple different boys that seemed to be around his age, in Ilvermorny he would have been considered the “jock” type of guy.

I looked over the room again and saw a clump of Gryffindors walk through the door. I recognized the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, and Adeline in the large group and they sat down at what was the Gryffindor table last night. I realized then that while it seemed the houses weren’t supposed to sit all at one table, they tended to do so. Maybe it was just because it was the first breakfast?

I seriously needed to stop comparing Hogwarts to Ilvermorny. They were way too different from each other… but I really didn't mind. Hogwarts seemed to be a lot more let loose with magic and rules, than Ilvermorny ever was. And though I’ve met a few… disagreeable people here, the amount of welcoming smiles was astounding.

I looked at my table in gratitude, I was lucky to have such amazing friends already… even if I did miss hanging out with Adeline already.

“McGonagall is right over there if you wish to go ask her about your robes,” Lottie pointed right before taking a small bite of a green jellied toast. I followed where she pointed to see the woman that had conducted the ceremony last evening, I had quite forgotten her name so I was glad Lottie had reminded me.

She seemed to be arguing with a distressed Ravenclaw boy… can you guess? He was one of the most attractive boys I had ever laid eyes on and I almost choked on my juice… of course. His hair fell in neat brown curls lightly clouding his pale skin. His eyebrows furrowed in frustration, and his arms waved around as if he was arguing. It was then I noticed that Addy was already approaching the annoyed Professor and I turned back to Lottie.

“I can go up there with you if you’re nervous, although it's just Easton,” She smiled politely and I shook my head.

“No, that's not it, but thanks for the offer! It seems like Addy already beat me to the task,” I said while nodding my head off to the side as if I was pointing at her. Lottie nodded in understanding and continued to eat her food calmly. 

I finally turned my attention back to the feast before me and my mouth watered. I grabbed a waffle, a banger, some red looking fruit, and a danish looking pastry with a smile on my face. I could gain weight on all the good food they handed out, but I’d have to watch myself… gaining a few pounds would not help getting on the Quidditch team. I ate most of my food and I was wondering when tryouts were when I took a small bite of the banger I grabbed.

My mouth seemed to melt off as I gasped at the contact between the scolding hot banger and my tongue. I breathed through my mouth in an attempt to cool it down and then grabbed a quick swing of the juice I was drinking. I then realized that the sausage was not only hot, but extremely spicy and I groaned. My cheeks got hot and I chugged my whole cup and a glass of water before I could feel my face again.

“Can’t handle a little spice aye Bloom?” Pierre and Cedric chuckled. I was in no mood for joking as my face was still extremely red, not only from the spicy food, but also from embarrassment. He was right. I wasn’t very good with spicy things, even those little muggle chips had me spitting fire right afterward.

“A little spice? That was pure fire!” I said as I drank some more water. Pierre made direct eye contact with me and took a disgustingly huge bite out of the sausage with a mocking smile on his face. Suddenly his expression changed from teasing to pure distress as he coughed.

“Bloody hell, I need some water,” He said in between coughs. Cedric seemed a bit worried as he slid the pitcher of water towards him. Pierre didn’t even take the time to pour it out into his glass as he brought the jug towards his face and drank the whole pitcher. Lottie couldn’t stop laughing as his face turned red from the heat.

“Now who can’t take a little spice?” She snickered at his pain.

“There is no way… they did that much spice on purpose… in the kitchens,” He said in between breaths. I suddenly realized who the culprit could be and I peered behind Pierre’s head to the Gryffindor table. Fred and George chuckled, one of them made an “o” with their lips and blew a bit of fire out of his mouth in a taunting way.

I shook my head at them and they turned back to their own meals, no one else seemed to notice this interaction and I muttered sarcastically to myself, “I wonder who it could have been.”

“You should try it Charlotte! See how well you do,” Pierre grumbled, and Lottie glared at him.

“First of all, don’t call me that. And no thanks, I’m actually good at not embarrassing myself,” She taunted. At that Cedric let out a huge laugh, bringing a hand down on Pierre’s shoulder. We all joined him quickly, Lottie smiled to herself in pride. Pierre joined in, and shot a smile towards Lottie as if to say, “You know you love me.” She rolled her eyes, but smiled back at him.

“Oh, schedules!” Lottie said as she realized an older Hufflepuff prefect was handing out pieces of parchment. I was excited as I was handed mine and I immediately looked at the cursive writing. For Monday: Defense Against the Dark Arts, The Study of Ancient Ruins, Potions, Herbology, and History of Magic. My stomach twisted a bit after I realized it could very well be possible that I wouldn’t get any classes with the people I knew. Cedric, the twins, Pierre, and Ginny were all in different years so there was no way I’d be with them.

Lottie placed hers on the table for me to read and I scanned through Monday only, I wouldn’t be able to memorize both so why read through it.

“Ancient Ruins and History of Magic,” I told her with a smile.

“Well since we have the two most boring classes together, we’ll have to spice things up our own way,” Lottie smiled. All of us shot a look at Pierre when she said spice and we all laughed again.

The rest of the table compared schedules and just when I figured out Maryann and I didn’t have a single class together, I saw Addy walking towards the table. I smiled and motioned for her to come over and join us, she still seemed awkward around most of the Hufflepuffs but I was hoping she would warm up quickly. Cedric was extremely quick to move aside to make room for her when he realized who I was waving at, and I smiled to myself.

“Hey, Adeline.”

She smiled at us before making eye contact with me while she sat close to Cedric. Addy didn’t notice but Cedric stiffened a bit as her robes brushed against his, and I almost smirked.

“Morning. Jules, we have to go find McGonagall's office in a bit to get our ties and new robes,” Adeline explained. Man, straight to the business this morning!

“Okay, we can leave soon. Did you get your schedule?” I asked and she quickly slid the small parchment towards me. Lottie and Maryann leaned over to read it as well, “Oh, okay we have everything except for charms.”

I handed it back to her and she smiled in relief. I was glad too, they must have put us in the same classes on purpose. Ilvermorny didn’t focus on a lot of the same magic they did here, our magic was also driven by many native cultures. We learned about European magic as well, but obviously not as in-depth as Hogwarts does.

“I have charms with Harry, so that’s fine,” she smiled before looking towards Cedric. I looked over at the Gryffindor table to see Ron, Harry, and Hermione talking in depth about something. They seemed to be amazing friends, and I understood what they felt for each other. Adeline and I had been close for a long time, and the trio’s closeness reminded me of our own friendship.

“Well Adeline, how was your first night at Hogwarts?” Pierre asked after a good amount of silence. Cedric hadn’t said much all morning, and I looked at him specifically. His jaw was a bit clenched and he was staring at the table in what seemed to be a deep focus… I hoped he was feeling okay.

“That bed is one of the most comfortable things I have ever slept on,” Addy responded but her gaze quickly drifted off to some foreign land.

“Who you’re sharing a dorm with?” Pierre asked with a smile, but Addy didn’t answer. She was hypnotized by the bread on the table for some odd reason. It looked like normal bread to me, maybe the twins had messed with another thing during our conversation. Pierre’s eyebrows furrowed, “Adeline?”

“Sorry, what did you say?” Adeline came back to Earth again. Pierre scoffed and Cedric let a smile grow back on his face again.

“I asked who you’re sharing a dorm with.”

“Oh, just Hermione and Ginny.”

“Did you guys have a party in your common room or a welcome back thing? I heard the Ravenlaw’s did something like that,” Maryann asked while leaning over Lottie.

“Not that I know of, but-” Addy interrupted herself with a large laugh. She glanced over her shoulder and attempted to quiet herself. Cedric smiled down at her as if he thought she was the cutest thing in the world, I half expected him to grab her chin right then and there to kiss her… he was in complete adoring mode, “I accidentally...I accidentally walked in on Ron changing his shirt and he screamed like a little girl.”

The whole table burst into laughter and I couldn’t help but join them, poor Ron. We all shifted our gaze to the Weasley and when he looked up we all looked in any other direction but his face. Pierre, Adeline, and Cedric laughed again.

“Why were you in their room?” I asked Addy quietly.

“The twins weren’t giving me any help with which dorms were which and Ron and Harry’s room was the first door that I opened,” Addy explained and everyone chuckled a bit more.

“Anyways, Jules, we should probably go find McGonagall's office so we aren’t late.”

“Yeah for sure. See you guys later.” We both stood up from our spots opposite each other.

Adeline walked by the Gryffindor table closely and spoke to the group, “If I’m not in defense against the dark arts ten minutes before it starts, do me a favor and come find me.”

Hermione and Harry smiled at her but Ron just cocked his head in confusion. He was probably still wondering why the heck we all were looking at him and laughing, poor boy would probably figure it out soon. Adeline then turned her attention back to the group of Hufflepuffs, lightly grazing Cedrics’ shoulder with hand. He looked up at her with a smile and she began to walk down the aisle again. As I was sitting across from her, we walked down each side of the table until we met at the end.

“When did you meet Pierre? He seemed to know you.” I asked as we walked through the pretty empty halls in search of Professor McGonagall’s office.

“Oh, he introduced himself yesterday when I was walking around the castle. He’s nice,” She said with a smile and a short nod.

“That’s nice of him. I think him and Cedric are like best friends,” I hadn’t seen them apart aside from the tour and our mad dash back to the common room. Although, Cedric seemed to have a pretty good amount of friends… he was quite a popular person.

“Hey, I think that might be it,” Addy said while pointing at a large wooden door. It was slightly cracked open, until Adeline knocked, making the door swing open a lot more. Out of instinct I almost lunged for it and pulled the door back into the hallway, but I quickly stopped myself. I wasn’t sure why I was so nervous.

“Oh, good morning girls. Come over here, I need to make sure these robes fit,” The professor said as she stood from her desk, walking over to a large cabinet. Adeline and I walked over to her as she pulled out two black robes, one with a yellow hood, the with a red hood, “Here, put these on.”

I slid the robe over my shoulders and stuck my arms through the soft fabric. The hood had gotten slightly stuck underneath the back of the cloth so I reached behind and re-adjusted it. It was then when I realized the robe was far too long. The sleeves fell slightly past my hands and I had to bunch them up onto the sides of my arms, the actual robe hit the floor slightly… I felt short.

“I think it’s okay,” Adeline said before looking at mine. Okay? Hers was perfect, and she hadn’t even been measured! She had some great luck let me tell you, she looked quite amazing in it as well, red was a good color on her.

“Oh, we can get that fixed in a few days so it isn’t a tripping hazard, but for now they’ll do. Here are your ties,” She handed us our house striped ties, “Now go put those on and head off to classes. Wouldn’t want to be late on your first day.”

She immediately spun around and shooed us out of her office with her hands and closed the door behind her. It was quite a quick experience and I stood there with a look of shock on my face. I looked down to see the rest of our uniform along with our ties, when the heck had she even handed us those???

“Well, that’s that I guess,” Adeline said before we both joined in a large laugh.

“There’s a bathroom down the hall that we can put our ties on at. At least I think there is,” I commented warily. All I could do was hope that I wasn’t wrong.

We made our way down the quiet hall and into the bathroom to put on our uniform. Adeline only had to help me with the last bit of the tie, but of course not without laughing. Once we had our robes situated, we headed to defense against the dark arts. There were a few students inside but three of them turned towards Adeline with a smile.

An extremely tall Gryffindor boy with short black coily hair and darker skin noticed first, but then two pale smaller boys noticed as well. One of the smaller Gryffindors looked quite uncomfortable with the situation, while the other looked like he was bursting to shake my hand right then and there.

“I see you got your robe and tie,” the tall one commented with a slight smile. The nervous boy looked at me and smiled, and I returned it along with a slight wave. He seemed kind and I would have gladly hugged him right then and there, he just seemed extremely huggable.

“Yeah, we just got them from McGonagall,” Adeline said, slightly nodding her head towards me. The tall one smiled down at me and was about to, probably, say a greeting before someone else loudly entered the room. We turned to see a group of Slytherin boys, one boy sticking out to me the most.

I sucked in a breath as Draco walked into the room, his blonde hair sticking out from all of the other green and black-robed boys. They were laughing about something probably rude when they stopped right before us. His face twisted into a look of disgust and he scanned us as if we were getting ready to be sold to some butcher store. He then scoffed and made direct eye contact with me, I broke it quickly as I had begun to blush at the sight of his cold eyes.

“Couldn’t find robes that actually fit you mudblood? Might as well trip over them and fall now,” He laughed, his goons chuckling behind him. It wasn’t that clever of an insult and I wasn’t going to let him get the pleasure out of something that had only slightly embarrassed me. I reestablished eye contact and held my head high, clenching my jaw slightly to show it hadn't bothered me one bit. His eyes falter when they met mine but he was quick to re-establish them, Despite them being quite cold looking… they were very beautiful.

They were a bright blue, they reminded me of a cold glass of water during an early morning thirst spell. He looked at me as if I was a challenge to his power, a challenge to his authority. I attempted to keep my gaze hard but, after such an intense staring session, I could see a bit of fear and sadness swirling within them just for a second. Until they were once again covered by pure disgust and loathing.

“How about I push you down the stairs and we’ll watch you fall,” Adeline threatened while stepping in front of me. This broke our eye contact and Draco looked at her in a bit of shock and anger. I realized what she said and I kept my head held high. It was a little much and I kinda wanted to take her away from the situation, but I knew she wouldn’t have budged no matter what I would have said. This isn’t the friendship version of “The Kissing Booth.”

“I’d like to see you try little mudblood,” he said while scoffing and folding his arms against his chest. I wasn’t sure why Addy didn’t correct him, she didn’t have to take the stupid insult as she was the exact opposite of a… you know.

She brought her arms up quickly and pushed him. Hard. I gasped slightly and broke from my, “You are a bully, and I’m not scared of you” stance. I watched as his arms fell out of their folded position and flew around while he tried to catch himself, but his friends behind him held him up.

“Want me to do it again? Or are you gonna learn to shut your mouth?” Adeline stepped threateningly towards him again and I wanted to scream. She could be expelled for this, I put a hand on her shoulder to bring her back but her anger clouded my action. I don’t even think she realized as she shrugged it off when Draco stood up and was about to say something else, she shoved him again but not as hard, “If you call either of us a mudblood again, you’re gonna regret it.”

Bloody hell, she was beginning to sound like the bully now. If anyone had walked in and saw this whole situation without the previous knowledge of him being an absolute dumbo, they probably would have taken Draco’s side. I stood in absolute shock as the rest of the class looked at her, sure he had it coming but no one else seemed to think it was the right move, including me. I turned and noticed that more people had entered the classroom, including Rom, Hermione, and Harry. They looked flabbergasted and I returned the same expression.

She stalked off to an open desk, not looking at a single soul and I followed her silently. Adeline didn’t even bother to pull out the bench at the two-person desk. She just shoved her legs through the gap and sat down forcefully. People began talking again and I was happy they had moved on, Addy twirled a ring around her finger in frustration and I decided that now was the best time to start a conversation.

More students filed into the classroom and I realized that there were tons of people in the class, we were lucky they weren’t all in there earlier. As I scanned the room I noticed Draco was glancing at me, from the corner of my eye. I looked back down at our desk quickly, what was his issue with me? I looked towards Addy again when she took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry,” Addy almost whispered and my heart lurched. She sounded full of regret, and if she hadn’t I may have given her an earful. I wouldn’t be able to survive Hogwarts without her, not because of Draco, but because she was my friend. I was quiet for a bit as I thought about what the right words were.

“It’s okay, Adeline. You’re just standing up for us, and there’s nothing wrong with that, maybe just try not to be so physical about it,” I quietly responded. I wanted to tell her that she could have gotten detention, hurt, or even worse, expelled… but that wasn’t what she needed to hear right now.

“I know, I just get so frustrated and can’t control it,” She muttered, her eyes glaring towards the boy. I looked over as well and his eyes shot down immediately… well he’d probably never speak to us again. I put on a smile and looked at Adeline with soft eyes.

“As long as you don’t get yourself expelled, you’re free to do whatever you want. I can’t stop you,” I told her. But if she ever did something like that again I’d have to seriously have a conversation with her. (Merlin I sound like my Mum) Violence is never the answer, unless it's necessary for your well being… otherwise, you might as well be just as bad as the bullies. I wasn’t mad at her though… It was kind of badarse.

Suddenly the door shut behind us and I whipped my head around to the man from last night. He limped upfront, his mechanical eye looking over the students in what seemed to be wariness. He looked a bit scary but it wasn’t fair to judge him so, I felt bad as people looked at him with either fear, judgment, or uncomfortably in there's eyes. He either didn’t notice or didn’t care as he made his way to the front of the class.

“Alastor Moody.” He wrote his name on a small chalkboard at the front of the class. “Ministry malcontent. And your new defense against the dark arts teacher. I’m here because Dumbledore asked me, end of the story, goodbye, the end. Any questions?”

I glanced around the room and no one seemed eager to raise their hand, so he continued, “When it comes to the dark arts, I believe in a practical approach. But first, which of you can tell me how many unforgivable curses there are?”

My stomach lurched and the atmosphere of the room changed quickly. You could have cut the tension in the air with a knife. I knew every single one of those curses and exactly why they were illegal and I had no intention of sharing it to the class. Paranoia caused me to study many different types of evil magic at ho- at Ilvermorny… I used to get stomach/headaches when I read what some magic could do, it scared me to the bone. I couldn’t even believe that people would even come up with magic like that, I used to believe it was impossible to be so evil… I used to, I miss the faith I had in the world.

“Three sir,” Hermione answered his question from the desk in front of us. I wasn’t surprised as she had proven herself to be quite bright.

“And they are so named?” People shifted in their seats and you could tell that everyone was uncomfortable… the professor ignored it and stared at Hermione.

“Because they are unforgivable. Use of any one of them will…” Hermione’s voice cracked and then trailed off in hesitation. She seemed scared to say it, and I would have been too… Why was he pushing this so much?

“Will earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban. Correct. Now the ministry says you’re too young to see what these curses do. I say different! You need to know what you’re up against, you need to be prepared, you need to find somewhere else to put your chewing gum other than the underside of your desk Mr. Finnigan.” Everyone turned to the Gryffindor boys from earlier and his eyes went wide. So that is Seamus, good to know.

He moved his hand out from the underside of the table and turned towards the tall Gryffindor to mutter quietly (obviously not very well), “Aw no way, the old codger can see out the back of his head.”

Suddenly, a piece of white chalk flew across the room at an alarming speed. Addy ducked and my eyes widened. The object barely missed Seamus’ head and smashed into the back wall, white dust floating into the air.

“And hear across classrooms!” He yelled aggressively. For some reason, this man seemed to bring aggression into every single word he said and every action he did.

“So, which curse shall we see first? Weasley!” All eyes went to the middle row where Ron and Harry shared a desk.

“Yes!” Ron said quickly with a crack in his voice, he was not having a good day… poor fellow.

“Stand. Give us a curse.”

“Well, my dad did tell me about one…The imperious curse,” He whispered the last part after standing up. The air seemed to be sucked out of everyone’s lungs

“Ahhh yes, your father would know all about that. Gave the ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago. Perhaps this will show you why,” He popped open one of the jars on the front table. Putting his hand in it to lift out an insect. He smiled at it with a loving gaze.

“Hello. What a little beauty,” He said while bringing her up to his wand, “Engorgio. Imperio!”

After the creature had grown slightly bigger he began to control the bugs' whereabouts lightly with the end of his wand. He made it land in front of the tall Gryffindor, he scooted back in disgust and the other Gryffindor made a face. After that he made it jump across the room onto one of the Slytherin boy’s head, he had been one of the boys who walked in with Draco.

“Don’t worry, she’s completely harmless!” He said with a deranged laugh. The young boy was almost crying as he brought his hands up to shield his face. He then moved it to a girl in Gryffindor, she had a twin sister who leaned away as the bug moved up her arm in curiosity. He laughed again before hovering it above Ron’s head, I couldn’t see his expression but his breath grew ragged in fear.

“If she bites… she’s lethal,” He laughed again, finally setting it on Ron’s head as the redhead whimpered slightly. Some of the class joined in on the laughter while others looked at each other in fear as it went past. A loud mocking laugh came from Draco and Moody stopped laughing and looked at him.

“What are you laughing at?” He said, flicking the bug onto Draco's face. The whole class started laughing hysterically including Addy, Harry was even clapping in joy. Draco tried to get another Slytherin student to get it off of him but the other boy was just as frightened. Moody let out another crazy laugh, and Addy quite hers to look upfront again.

“Talented isn’t she? What should I have her do next?!? Jump out the window,” He said with a look of joy, suddenly slamming the poor thing into a magnifying glass. The mood changed back to silence as he roughly pulled the creature over a bucket of water, “Drown herself?”

Everyone stared in fear and disgust as he brought the insect lightly to his hand. It was writhing around in pain and flipping through the air, I felt like I was going to be sick.

“Scores of witches and wizards have claimed that they only did you-know-whose bidding under the influence of the imperious curse. But here’s the rub, how do we sort out the liars? Another, another. Come on! Come on!” He was waiting for students to raise their hands, and a few did, but I decided it was best for me to sit this one out. “Longbottom is it? Up.”

The Gryffindor next to the tall one stood up, Longbottom. He seemed quite nervous but he looked at the professor in the eye. Someone whispered in the back mentioning his name, Neville.

“Professor Sprout tells me you have an aptitude for herbology,” The professor leaned close to Neville’s face. He nodded but then moved on to the answer. I realized then what was going to happen to the poor creature if he kept using the same… method of teaching.

“There’s the um...The cruciatus curse,” He said hesitantly.

“Correct! Correct! Come come. Particularly nasty. The torture curse.” He motioned for Neville to step up to the table where the bug was standing, “Crucio!”

The insect started wriggling under the spell. It was squealing and making noises, I scrunched my eyes closed and wished for it to be over. It seemed to go on forever, I looked towards Neville in an apologetic stare. He was motionless and frozen where he stood, but his fists were tightly clenched at his sides and his breath was quick. After what seemed like minutes, I got ready to yell at him to stop when Hermione spoke up.

“Stop it! Can’t you see it’s bothering him, stop it!” She was practically yelling at the professor, and I cringed at the deranged man’s expression. He pulled his wand away and looked at Neville. The creature stopped screaming and grew still, in what I assumed to be tiredness… it wouldn’t have mattered if it had or hadn't died right then and there. I knew what curse was next.

He cleared his throat and left Neville standing there, his face was scrunched up tight and he was shaking horribly. He picked up the poor thing and set it on one of Hermione’s books, ““Perhaps you could give us the last unforgivable curse Miss Granger?”

She turned her head away from the situation and I saw her face as she shook her head no. She looked as if she was about to cry, and I felt I was about to as well… nothing deserved something as horrid that had been happening to it in this class. The entire class watched in silence as the crazy man said the killing curse, allowed, quickly.

The creature let out a large screech as a green light flashed out of his wand. Everyone was silent, Hermione looked away from the creature all she could. I did the same and shook at the words, I never thought I would ever hear them aloud.

My stomach hurt horribly and I wanted to cry, my breath was ragged and it took every bit of me not to run out of the darkroom. I looked at Adeline and she seemed less phased than I was, but she still looked as if she wanted to leave the room.

“The killing curse. Only one person is known to have survived it. And he’s sitting in this room.” Moody walked over and stood right in front of Harry’s desk, looking down at him. I had heard about Harry Potter in the U.S. but I hadn’t thought much about his story until now. I looked at him and he seemed to be very shaken up, as the professor took another swig out of his flask.

The rest of the class time went by unbearably slow as we did reading out of the textbooks we were given. Everyone was silent, still thinking about the horrid scenario that went on a few minutes earlier. I glanced over to see that even Malfoy was stuck in a haze, he adjusted his tie as if it was too tight around his neck. Once the bell rang out that class was over, Neville darted out of the classroom in front of everyone else. Most of the students stayed silent as they packed up their stuff.

We slowly moved out of the classroom, right behind Hermione, Ron, and Harry. Draco and his friends walked by without hesitation nor the idea of even looking towards us. I suppose that’s one way to get rid of a few bullies. Suddenly Ron broke the silence, he didn’t seem to read the room very well.

“Brilliant isn’t he! Completely demented of course. Terrifying to be in the same room with him, he’s really been there you know,” He rambled. Every single person who heard him looked at him as if he were completely crazy, including me. Did he not see what that man had just done?

“There’s a reason those curses are unforgivable, and to perform them in a classroom. I mean did you see Neville’s face?” Hermione stopped on the stairs when she realized the boy she was talking about was standing there, staring out the window, “Neville?”

I looked up to see Professor Moody pushing past Addy and the trio in a rush. He placed a hand on Neville’s shoulder and seemed concerned. I wanted to yell at him to get away from the young boy… I’m sure Moody was the last person he wanted to see.

“Son. You alright?” Neville silently nodded and turned around, away from the window. “Come on, we’ll have a cup of tea. I want to show you something.”

They walked back up the stairs towards the classroom. The rest of the class descended down the stairs towards our next classes. I shot one more look up the stairs in worry, I wondered what Moody was going to say.

______

“Thanks for walking with me to ancient ruins Hermione. I’m not sure how I would have made it without you,” I smiled at her and she returned it. Our walk was quite silent as we both had our minds on other things. She walked extremely quickly as if she had different things she needed to tend too.

“It’s no problem,” she said quickly. Today wasn’t really the day to get to know each other I supposed so I shut my mouth and weaved around students behind her.

“Juliet!” I turned to see Lottie running towards me with a smile on her face. I stopped walking and then realized that Hermione had disappeared.

“Hey, Lottie! How was… charms?” I asked while trying to remember what she had in the morning class. She groaned and rolled her head back to stare up at the ceiling.

“Boring. Just like this class probably…” Lottie said unamused, “How was… I don’t really know, whichever class you took?”

“It was,” I twisted my face into a frown as I thought about Professor Moody’s deranged laugh, “Interesting.”

“Oh, that’s right! You had the new professor right? I heard he is absolutely crazy,” She said with excitement.

“Crazy doesn’t cover it, love…” I said sick to my stomach about the class. Lottie seemed to notice it and she changed the subject.

“So what’s the deal with Adeline?” She asked nonchalantly and I looked at her with an eyebrow raised in confusion.

“The deal? What do you mean,” I asked as we turned down another hall. Where the heck were we?

“You two seem close. I know you both went to Ilvermorny but what else?”

“Oh. Well, our parents went to school at Hogwarts together. My Mom fell in love with my Father, who was best friends with Adeline’s mother. My mom was pretty close to Addy’s father and introduced him to Mrs.Finley… they got married and soon after my Mother and Father did the same. At around the same time, both our mothers got pregnant, this was when… you know who was on the rise. They all decided to stay together and move to the U.S, where Adeline and I were born,” I explained.

“We’ve been friends ever since we were born, her parents are more than just like my Uncle and Aunt. They’re like second parents basically, and I love them greatly,” I smiled when I thought about the grown-ups. I missed them all greatly and it had only been about 3 days.

“Aw that’s so sweet,” Lottie said with a little pout, “Having a friendship like that is priceless, be sure you don’t lose it.”

“I would never, Adeline is practically half my heart. I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize our friendship,” I scoffed. It was true, if I lost Adeline then I just lost everything.

“Okay this is it,” Lottie smiled as we approached a classroom, there weren't very many students. Especially compared to the previous class but I assumed that was probably because most people opted out of Ancient Runes. The professor looked up from her book and smiled, she looked to be about Professor McGonagall’s age.

“Come on in. We’re going to start soon,” She said quickly before turning back to the large book that adorned her podium. Lottie walked over to one of the four-person tables on the left side of the room and I sat next to her. I looked around the room and noticed how many different symbols and tablets hung upon the walls. The room was lit by orange lights littered around the room, the blinds closed.

Suddenly, Hermione rushed into the class and sat down with us in a huff. Her hair was much poofier and I wondered where she had been for the last 3 minutes as she was way ahead of us earlier.

“Welcome to The Study of Ancient Ruins beginners class. A special welcome to our new student Juliet Bloom, I hope Hogwarts has and will treat you well,” She motioned towards me from behind her podium. I would have been embarrassed if there weren't only 10 other people in the class.

“Here are your reference tables to the ancient alphabet, their names, and a few of their many definitions. I expect you to have the memorized within the next four weeks,” She said as she handed out pieces of parchment to everyone, “They also have the symbols for numbers 1-10.”

When she attempted to hand it to Hermione, she politely declined. She must have already had them memorized, Lottie looked at me impressed. She was really, really smart.

____

The class went by extremely quickly as all we really had to do was focus on pronouncing symbols and translating our names into the ancient wizard alphabet. We also had briefly talked about the many uses for the information and how many different spells, objects, and areas were defined by the “lost art.”

I parted ways with Lottie, so Hermione and I walked together to Potions. This time I didn’t end up losing her and she seemed to be in much less of a hurry. It didn’t take too long before Addy had found me, accompanied by the Ravenclaw I saw earlier, Easton I believe it was. He smiled at me, although Addy didn’t seem to bother with introductions but I could tell that we were going to be great friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DON'T HAVE MUCH TO SAY BESIDES I LOVE YOU MWUAH!  
> Who's your favorite possible relationship so far?  
> Make sure to vote, comment, and share!  
> Love, C


	8. Clueless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Lovelies. This chapter is a bit different than Adelines and I would recommend reading both, as always ;) Have an amazing read y'all (No TW)

"Ronald, scoot over. The bench isn’t big enough for you to take up all the room!” Hermione was yelling at Ron for sitting in the middle of the long seat. It wouldn’t have mattered if all 6 of us hadn’t needed to scrunch together. There were way more students in this class, compared to all the others… that was probably why we had to take three sessions a week.

“Why’s she always so bossy?” Ron groaned while scooting closer to Harry. Harry and I chuckled.

“Well maybe if you didn’t take up the whole bloody bench, she wouldn’t have to tell you to move,” Adeline added and Ron stared at her, Hermione seemed to appreciate it though. Easton was joining the five of us for some reason. Don’t get me wrong, he was more than welcome, but he seemed a bit uncomfortable with the scenario.

The door slammed behind us and all heads turned to watch a man in long black robes walk down the row between the desks. I recognized him from last night, he was the one Cedric had us James Bond our way past. Once he reached the end of the aisleway, he focused specifically on Adeline and me. He seemed to be particularly interested in Addy, his eyes looking over her as if she was some unsolved puzzle.

Why were we right at the front? He was literally staring down at us just a foot away and I was extremely uncomfortable.

“Miss Finley. Miss Bloom. Welcome to Hogwarts,” He said, his voice devoid of any sort of emotion. He seemed rather disgusted at our presence, but he sounded disgusted the night before as well so maybe that’s just what he sounded like normally. He began to scan the room instead of us, and Addy turned to me with her eyebrows raised. I shrugged my shoulders in response, something I seemed to be doing a lot lately.

“For those of you who don’t know, I’m Professor Snape. In my classroom, there will be no talking when I’m talking. This is a potions classroom. Not social hour. You are expected to do the work I give you. No exceptions,” He drawled and I widened my eyes. Way to suck the fun out of the room, Jiminy Christmas… this man was certainly an interesting character.

“I’ll assign you with your lab partners in a few moments. You will be paired up with someone from another house. You all need to get potions textbooks from the library tonight and have them by tomorrow,” I didn’t mind the different house thing, I had tons of friends from different houses in the class! Chances were pretty high that I’d be paired up with one of them.

He scanned the silent classroom before pulling a sheet of paper off of his desk. “I’ll put you into pairs now and once I do, go sit with your partner. These will be your partners for the rest of the year, no exceptions.”

“Potter, you’re with Chang, Weasley with Crabbe.” He went through the list with a bunch of names I didn’t recognize, eventually, most of the class was sorted. At our desk, only Easton, Addy, and I sat. Maybe he was going to place me with Adeline since we were new?

“Malfoy and Bloom.”

My stomach dropped and my mouth went dry, there was no way. I looked at Snape and then Draco quickly, Draco seemed just as surprised. I turned to Adeline and she looked like she was about to argue, which of course she did.

“What! No!” Addy slammed her hands on the table in a panic. The room looked towards her and Snape directed a glare her way.

“Excuse me, Miss Finley.”

“Sorry, nothing,” Snape looked away from Addy and continued on with his list. I turned to Adeline and she seemed desperate to get the thought out of her head that Draco and I were even going to be next to each other.

“I’ll talk to him.” She furrowed her eyebrows. What did she think was gonna happen, it’s not like he was gonna murder me… probably.

“Adeline no. It’s fine,” I gave her a reassuring smile and furrowed my eyebrows in determination.

Before she could object, I turned around and made my way to the Slytherin. He watched me intently as I walked over to him and my face turned slightly red at his intense stare. As if challenging Adeline he smirked at me. I could practically hear Adeline’s blood boiling.

“Finley with Parr,” Snape finally finished and Adeline turned her attention back to Easton. I sat on the seat with Draco, as far down the bench as possible mind you. He didn’t say a word and I was okay with the silence we had at the moment.

“There is a review sheet on your desk. Complete it and then set it on my desk when you’re finished. Work with your partner on it,” Professor Snape said with extra pronunciation, for some odd reason. I pulled the review sheet towards the middle of us, half expecting Malfoy to straight-up ignore me the whole time. How come we had a review sheet when we had learned nothing to review yet?

I noticed Adeline send a worried glance towards us and I mouthed, ‘I’m fine’ to her. He hadn’t even said or done anything and I doubted he would. I focused my gaze onto the paper slightly shifting it closer to me when he didn’t look like he was going to participate, instead he sat back and seemed annoyed at the fact that we were existing.

I wrote quietly on the review sheet by myself, I didn’t need him to do anything and I’d rather he sat there pouting than insulting me. Even if that meant I ended up doing all the work… gosh this was going to be a long year.

“I can’t believe I got paired with the mudblooded Hufflepuff,” He mumbled loud enough for me to hear. My hand stopped writing for a second but I quickly restarted to fill out the question.

I ignored the statement but I think he saw my grip tighten on my quill because he sat up in interest. He couldn’t go 5 minutes without insulting someone, could he? And was mudblood the only freaking thing he could say?

“Not so tough without your guard dog around huh?” He sneered and I stopped writing. My solution of ignoring him was looking quite boring at the minute. I wanted to grab him by his pretentious hair and toss him into the hallway. Guard dog? Who does he think he is?

“I don’t need anyone to protect me, she was just being a good friend. Now, are you going to help me with this or am I doing it myself?” I asked him and he scoffed. Leaning back into his chair in boredom again, I took that as a no and turned back to the assignment.

The questions were fairly easy, but it was difficult to figure them all out by myself… we had learned different things at Ilvermorny. It had been about 20 minutes and I was still working on the dumb questionnaire thingy when my mind blanked... Was it ginger root or ginger extract?

“Can’t you write any faster? Everyone else is practically finished already,” Malfoy piped up again. I looked up in disbelief, he was going to complain about my work when he wasn’t even doing anything?

“I’m trying,” I grumbled. Sure a few people had already turned theirs in, but not everyone was finished just yet.

“Well try harder,” He snapped before leaning back again. I held my tongue as it wouldn’t have said any nice things. Instead, I leaned back and pushed the paper forward as if I was done. He stared at me like he was expecting me to do something.

“Well, your highness, if you want it done quickly you’ll need to finish it yourself,” I said with a smile. He seemed to be in shock, his eyes darting between me and the parchment.

“Yeah right. I’m not doing a single thing with or for you,” He put extra disgust on the “you.” When I didn’t start writing again, he just smiled wickedly as if he just came up with something.

“Pick up the quill and write, now,” He said in an incredibly intimidating voice as he turned in his chair and made direct eye contact with me. My face went warm and I couldn’t get a word out. How did he…

“Ex-excuse me?” I asked in a bit of shock. He seemed to have full confidence in himself, as if just saying it straight up would make me want to write.

“You heard me,” He didn’t break eye contact and my face lit up to an incredibly bright red. I understood what he was doing now, he was trying to intimidate me into doing his work. He couldn’t do anything to me, even if he wanted to. Other people may have fallen for this stupid power trip but I wasn’t.

“No,” I said, steadying my voice quickly.

“What did you just say?”

“You heard me,” I stood my ground, I had made sure to say it exactly as he did just a few seconds ago. I figured I was doing quite well.

He seemed confused that it didn’t work, as if people always bowed down to his feet when he used his big boy voice. He then went back to throwing his hissy fit and I sat back against my chair, leaving my quill on the table. If we failed then we failed, I’m not going to do this all year.

“It’s ginger root.”

I whipped my head towards him, I had to hold the triumphant smile back, “What?”

“The answer to number 18, it’s ginger root. We learned that in the first year of potions,” He scoffed. I ignored his tone and smiled, I had won! I made sure he saw my smile before I returned to writing on the paper.

“Thank you,” I said sincerely and he seemed surprised. Had no one ever thanked him before?

The rest of the class went by quickly as whenever I had a question I would just ask him. He seemed a bit nicer than earlier but still had to make it sound like it was a dumb question, even when he didn’t know the answer right away either. He wasn’t actually that bad at potions, he obviously knew more than I did.

“Okay, that was the last one,” I smiled and stood up. We got done a lot quicker with Draco helping and had even finished before a few other students. He didn’t say anything and instead just angrily twirled one of his many rings around his finger. He had extremely attractive hands, whew.

He suddenly looked up at me and I quickly diverted my eyes away from him, continuing my walk up front. Snape stared down at my paper before saying, “Thank you, Miss Bloom.”

I smiled and nodded before walking back to the desk. I made eye contact with the blonde again and he smirked, my heart fluttered slightly. His smile was extremely cute and it was hard not to pay any mind to it.

“I almost got to you,” He said leaning back into his chair as if he had won some bet. I looked at him confused, “Earlier, when I mentioned Finley.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I sat back down. Yes, he did almost get me… almost got me to slap him.

“I think you do,” Draco said with a sneer.

“Don’t speak about my friends like that and we won’t have an issue, okay? Especially Finley,” I said in a serious voice. He straight up laughed, but it was more in a mocking tone than in a sincere one.

“What are you going to do? Glare at me? Go tattletale to a teacher? Oh no, you wouldn’t do either of those things, would you? No, you’d go get your little bodyguard,” He was attempting to break me for some reason. I wasn’t going to let him get the satisfaction, until he crossed the line.

“You know all it would take is one word from me to my father and your little friend would be expelled,” He looked at me as if it was a challenge. He won this one.

My eyes shot up to his face and I glared at him, “You wouldn’t dare.”

“You want to put that theory to the test? It doesn’t make any difference to me whether you’re here or not,” He threatened and my eyes shot down to the desk. I wasn’t willing to take that chance.

“Tell your little guard dog,” He emphasized, knowing I hated that. I grabbed the desk so tight my knuckles turned white, “that the next time she threatens me, she’ll be the one who’ll be regretting it”

“Too afraid to tell her yourself?” I scoffed and his eyes clouded with anger.

“You wouldn’t speak to me like that if you knew all the things I could do to you. I can ruin your life faster than you can even imagine. Don’t make me your enemy Bloom,” He practically growled. I was too angry to think twice about it, even considering the threat from just a few seconds earlier.

“You don’t scare me Draco Malfoy. You’re just another bully,” I said as confidently as I could. It was kinda hard to stare this boy in the eyes, pretending like his connections could make my life a living hell. I had a bit more respect for Adeline’s courage in DADA.

“Oh really?” Another smirk arose on his face and I rolled my eyes. I took a few breaths to calm down, Draco didn’t deserve any sort of reaction from me.

“Really,” I looked at him with a smile and looked over to something random, signaling that I was ready for this conversation to be completely over.

“How about when I made you flustered,” He said it off handedly, as if it didn’t mean much. I almost choked on my own spit in surprise. His triumphant smile returned once again and I wanted to crawl under the table, “I think you even blushed.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, I didn’t blush,” I lied. My cheeks began to heat up again and I cursed myself. I brought up my hand and rested my face on it in an attempt to hide it.

“Yes, you did.”

“No… I didn’t.”

A bell sounded and I put my hand down, spinning away quickly in hopes he didn’t see my red face. I put my faith in the wrong place.

“Your face was as red as your ugly hair Bloom… much like this very moment,” He laughed. The ugly part hurt a tiny bit but I just turned around and looked at him. He leaned forward, probably expecting me to lash out another insult.

“Goodbye, Malfoy. I hope you have a wonderful day,” I said with a soft smile, with as much kindness as I could muster. 

His face faltered and I realized something… kindness was truly the best defense against him. He didn’t know how to react, and I was able to leave without another insult. I didn’t look back but I knew it would not be the last time he spoke to me.

Draco seemed desperate to get me to hate him, he was pushing for me to get riled up… and he didn’t seem like the person to give up so easily.

“Are you okay? Did he say something to you? I’ll-” Adeline started firing out questions faster than I could answer.

“Adeline! I’m fine, chill out,” I interrupted her. Before she could say anything else I added, “I’m serious. I’m just fine, I can handle myself.”

“I know you can, I just don’t want him to be a prat to you,” She grumbled. I considered the fact that she may have just been looking for any excuse to pummel the blonde. I was going to have to inform her about Draco’s threat later, as Easton walked up and placed a hand on Addy’s shoulder. He was about three inches taller and she looked up at him slightly.

“Adeline, she said she’s fine. If he does anything else, we’ll give you permission to land your fist into his face, but he hasn’t done anything yet,” He said with a bargaining tone.

“Exactly, thank you, Easton,” I smiled at the boy and he returned it.

“Okay, fine. Can we go now? I’m hungry,” Adeline stated and my stomach agreed with her. 

We began to follow Harry, Hermione, and Ron out of the classroom. I looked back to see that everyone had already left, but Professor Snape was staring right at Adeline. I gulped and furrowed my eyebrows at him, he kept looking at her and it was making me uncomfortable.

I turned back towards the group and thought about why he was so interested in her… maybe he knew our parents? We eventually made it to the great hall and Easton split off to go eat with the Ravenclaw table.

“You know we can eat breakfast and lunch with whoever, right?” I asked Addy as we headed towards the left side of the room.

“We can? I thought it was all assigned by houses.,” Adeline looked up at the groups of people.

“Yeah, we only have to sit with our houses for certain feasts.”

“Oh, that’s nice.” We walked over to the same table we sat at this morning, but Addy saw Fred and George sitting close to Cedric and Pierre, so that’s where we sat down. I sat next to Adeline, right in front of Cedric. He smiled at me in a greeting and I returned it.

“Look who it is! How were your classes?” Pierre asked first. He liked to be inclusive and I thought it was sweet of him.

“Yeah, they were alright,” Addy said, her shoulders shrugging a bit. I was going to share about my day until Fred interjected.

“You mean alright because you threatened to push Malfoy down the stairs, or alright because you actually shoved him in front of half the class?” Fred asked while George stared over his shoulder. I was taking a drink of water and I almost spit it all over Cedric in surprise. That got around fast.

“You did what!” Cedric’s voice wasn’t a yell, but it was definitely laced with concern. I stared at the group of older boys and I wanted to leave the table.

“Thank you, Fred. Thank you so much,” Adeline sarcastically turned to the redhead with a frown. Fred just looked at his plate, he didn’t seem to be very impressed with the situation. I would have thought he would even encourage a rivalry like this one.

Cedric seemed to be waiting for a reply, Pierre sat with his mouth open, his spoon still in his soup, and I squirmed. Draco seemed to have the whole freaking school wrapped around his fingers… well rather his father’s fingers. I awkwardly took another drink of water when Adeline started to explain.

“What? He was making fun of us and I wasn’t gonna let him just walk all over us like that. Harry agreed that he deserved it,” Adeline muttered the last part but we all heard it. She turned to Fred and leaned over the table to look at him, “And how did you even find out? You weren’t even there.”

“It went around the school pretty fast.” Fred said like it was common. Adeline then glanced towards Cedric who still looked like a disappointed father,

“What!” She asked, or really yelled at him. Pierre sighed and then focused on his soup instead of the awkward table.

“You can’t just go around shoving people. Especially Malfoy. His father could get you expelled,” Cedric scolded quietly, as to not draw too much attention to Adeline. Cedric literally was spot on, Draco Malfoy was gonna go tattle to his father about a girl pushing him.

“Yeah well, he shouldn’t go around calling Juliet a mudblood and telling her to trip down the stairs with her robes,” Adeline said angrily and I looked at her slightly, I did not want to be the subject of conversation.

Cedric put his face into his hands in frustration, like a Dad who calculated taxes wrong or something.

“Sorry, but I don’t just take insults lightly,” Addy sighed.

“She even told him he’d regret it if he ever insulted her again,” Fred added and I looked at him. He had to be doing this on purpose now.

“Fred! Shut up!” Adeline looked at him with a why-are-you-like-this? look.

“Hey, guys! What did I miss?” Lottie suddenly interjected with a smile before she sat down at the table with a smile on her face. I was grateful for the opportunity to change the conversation until Pierre spoke up.

“Oh we were just talking about how Adeline here threatened the Slytherin prince,” He said. Okay were Fred and Pierre just out to ruin Adeline's day or something? Addy slammed her head into the table and stayed there.

“Oh...yeah I heard about that,” Jiminy Christmas news did travel fast.

“All I’m saying is that you need to be careful with him because he will find a way to make the consequences worse for you,” Cedric’s voice was softer this time. I really needed to tell her about the scenario in potions before I forgot.

“Okay, okay,” Adeline groaned, finally lifting her head from the wooden table. She then scooped some soup out of the large bowl on the table into her own bowl. I did the same as she asked the twins a question.

“George, Easton told me to ask you about quidditch. How do I try out?”

“Angelina Johnson is the captain, so you’ll have to talk to her but I can get you a spare practice uniform so you can come to the first one. She should be fine with it, we need a few more players anyway.” He kept his eyes on the food in front of him. I looked at Cedric on the topic of quidditch but he was still staring at Adeline in concern.

Okay, I understand that these things “take time” but this was taking forever. They were both obviously crushing, they should’ve just kissed instead of dancing around each other with glances and smiles. It was physically hard to watch… and it had only been like 3 days! Adeline being completely clueless and Cedric taking his sweet time, I was about to slam my face into my bowl of soup and just drown.

I sighed and then glanced over to the Slytherin table, my eyes washing over the crowd finally landing on a pair of piercing blue eyes. He was looking at me, he didn’t pretend like he wasn’t. The hall seemed to stop as he raised his eyebrows at me, I set my jaw and turned back to the table. I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to serve as a reminder from earlier or if it was something else… Nah, definitely a reminder. Why else would he be looking at me?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew that was fun, wasn't it!  
> Hehe, what did you all think about Juliet's interaction with Draco :O  
> Thanks for reading loves! Vote, and comment if you wish :)  
> Love, C


	9. The Cure to Butterflies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot like Adelines POV. Which you can find on @g_afy03 s profile!!! Please enjoy:)

Lunch went by without further delay and I was excited to get to Herbology. I enjoy most plants but the true exciting part is the sentient ones, they’ve always caught my eye. Professor Sprout was quick with the introductions and then we made right to work. She let us choose groups of three so Adeline, Neville, and I ended up working together.

We were actually working with physical substances so I was having the time of my life. Adeline was not as she dropped a hopping toadstool and had to run after it for a few minutes. She wasn’t very talented when it came to plants but she stuck with it and continued to the task.

“You could tighten your grip, you know, they’re quite tolerant of being held. Adeline, try holding them upside down and one at a time, it helps calm them,” Neville spoke up shyly and I smiled at him. He was extremely kind and I appreciated his words.

“Congrats Longbottom! Ten points to Gryffindor, I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Professor Sprout smiled down at him proudly before making her way to a student who was struggling.

“You’re very good at this Neville! I was just worried about hurting the poor thing,” I took the large one that was in the table bucket and lightly shook it upside down until spores poofed into the small sample bottle. The little nuisance writhed in my hand so I took Neville’s advice and gripped a little tighter.

“Thank you… you are good as well,” Neville shyly smiled and turned back to his work.

“Oof this dumb thing,” Adeline scowled as she lunged for the mushroom that escaped her a second time. She caught it midair and held it up to my face in triumph, “Haha I got him good now!”

She lightly shook it as it started wiggling again and I gasped.

“Addy! Quick put it over the glass before-”

A poof of spores sprayed right over Neville and I’s face. Adeline laughed slightly before apologizing and offering her robes to help wipe it off. Professor Sprout saw the mess and provided us with washcloths, we were both able to wipe the powder off.

“Longbottom and Bloom, I would recommend not going out in the moonlight tonight as you will attract many leaping toadstools to the area if so much as a smidge of spores are still on your face. Finley, I would recommend you read the textbook more thoroughly before shaking plants in people’s faces,” Professor Sprout warned before turning over to the next group.

Neville laughed slightly and muttered, “At least mushrooms aren’t going to pop out of our noses.”  
Adeline and I laughed at the small comment and he looked at us with a smile. We seemed to have made a great friend today and I was happy about it. I decided to officially designate Neville to be my plant buddy… inside my head of course, outloud that would have been a weird thing to say.

The class was over before we knew it and I noticed a small textbook in Neville’s hand. He saw me peering at it curiously and he pulled it out from underneath his arm, to show me it’s cover, “Magical Mediterranean Water-Plants and Their Properties.”

“Professor Moody gave it to me after tea… earlier,” Neville’s head lowered a bit at the thought and I hurt for him.

“That’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, may I take a look at it with you sometime?” I asked with wonderment in my voice and Neville immediately perked up. I was hoping that the topic would distract him from his thoughts, but I truly was curious about the subject. Water creatures and lifeforms were one of my favorite things to study.

“Sure! Whenever you’d like to I suppose,” He said a lot more confidently than before. I was happy he was more comfortable with me and Adeline nudged my shoulder. She noticed how quickly we had become friends and smiled at me.

Adeline always made sure to go out of her way to congratulate me on the things that I did, constantly eliminating my many recurring doubts. She was always thoughtful in that way, that was one of the things I loved about her. I mean the physical protective wing she hovered over me was also… nice, but her kindness always seeming to eliminate my own harmful thoughts were a gift no one had ever been able to top… and I doubted anyone would ever be able to.

Next we had History of Magic with Ron. Professor Binns was the first ghost professor I had ever had, and it was interesting in the least. He spoke drowsily and sometimes passed straight through desks, not seeming to notice or care. Ron would constantly whisper to either Adeline and I throughout the class in confusion.

“What did he say?” Ron asked for the fifth time in that period and Adeline groaned.

“I don’t know Ronald, I couldn’t hear over your complaining,” She said with an eye roll and I laughed quietly.

He huffed slightly and turned towards the professor again. Ron was confused the whole time and constantly muttering about either food, his family, complaints about the class, or wondering what the heck the professor was talking about. 

“He was talking about 5 page essay we’re going to have to write about Hogwarts history to pass the class,” I whispered to Ron and he groaned slamming his head into the table

“If you keep telling him what he’s missing then he’ll never learn to listen,” Adeline smiled at me while nudging my shoulder.

“I know but he’s trying… I think?”

Adeline laughed and Ron must have heard because he muttered something into the table again. I couldn’t hear because his face was smashed into the wood and it sounded like ‘shmmof shtb blahndi.’ This made Adeline and I laugh a bit louder, Professor Binns looked up from his book with a bit of a glare and I mouthed a ‘sorry.’

History of Magic seemed to draw on forever when we finally were able to leave. Ron had halfway fallen asleep in the class and proceeded to almost walk through the professor on the way out. He was only saved by Adeline’s quick reaction to push him out of the way in time. It was disrespectful to some ghosts and I was relieved he didn’t almost get detention.

The rain was dumping down on the castle roof and I smiled. A good rainstorm was the perfect way to end a long day. It was relaxing, the smell of damp grass and the constant thunderous pounding on the castle’s stone walls. You could hear the squeaking from shoes as people ran into the castle out of the rain.

We decided to sit next to Hermione where a large group of students crowded the beautiful goblet, in wait of participants. I looked at the blue flame as it cast a mysterious hue on the walls. If I was older I might have even attempted to do the competition, although Adeline and my parents would have thrown quite the fit. My Mum would have said something like, “Putting yourself in unnecessary danger for fun is no better than throwing yourself in a pit of lions for ‘the thrill’.”

As you could probably tell, she didn’t play quidditch and it took a lot of convincing from my father and Adeline’s family before she let me play. But she soon became my biggest supporter when she saw how much I loved it, she came to every single match I played in no matter the weather.

“So all they have to do is put their name on a piece of paper and then put it in the goblet and then that’s like their submission?” Adeline asked Hermione who seemed to be much more interested in her book than the people putting in their names.

“Yes. And then in two days, Dumbledore will announce champions from each school to enter the tournament,” Hermione said, a bit frustrated. I think she was already over the whole tournament thing, even though we had just started. 

I clapped along with the others as two other students broke through the light aura surrounding the cup, I thought it was cool how the blue light flared upwards as if in gratitude for the submission. Loud laughter came from a group of boys and I recognised Pierre and Cedric in the bunch. They ran past Ron and Harry, Pierre and two other Hufflepuff pushed Cedric into the ring. 

“Come on Cedric, put it in!” Someone yelled from next to the boys and I was excited. Someone I knew was entering the tournament. I smiled and turned towards Adeline but her face was pale, she looked like she had just heard a death sentence not a name submission.

Cedric smiled as he slowly dropped a parchment into the fire, and the blue flame openly engulfed it. Everyone cheered even louder this time, especially his mates. Ron did a small awkward half wave towards the smiling brunette but was ignored. Cedric hugged Pierre in what seemed to be congratulations. Pierre looked towards our way and I waved at him slightly, he returned a wink before turning back to his friends.

You could tell the whole group had been out in the rain as everyone’s hair was damp and sticking to their foreheads. I looked towards Adeline again and she still seemed sick to her stomach.

“Adeline, are you okay? You look extremely pale,” I said concernedly. She turned towards me and gave a weak smile.

“I’m, I’m fine. I’m just gonna go outside and get some air,” Adeline hopped down from the bench right as the twins broke through the big doors. They were hollering and whooping, people started cheering for them and Hermione rolled her eyes. 

George stopped Addy and mentioned something to her before they continued their “victory lap.” I watched her leave and considered following when I saw the one and only Diggory sneak away from the crowd. I smiled to myself, this was the perfect time for them to have an actual conversation.

“Thank you, thank you! Well, lads we’ve done it!” George said while scanning the crowd. Congratulations and cheers emerged from every student in the room. I clapped along with them with a smile on my face, this wasn’t going to work but it was fun of them to try.

“Cooked it up just this morning,” Fred said, showing the crowd a small bottle. As if it was some sort of magic trick everyone leaned in to see the bottle better.

“It’s not going to work,” Hermione sang lightly while looking at her book still. The twins chuckled and walked towards her, crouching on each side.

“Oh yeah? And why’s that Granger?” One of the twins asked, I wasn’t sure which one as it was impossible to tell from behind their heads.

“You see this? This is an age line. Dumbledore drew it himself,” Hermione said while looking at the twins in a matter of fact tone. 

“So?” The one on the right side asked Hermione and she scoffed, closing her book.

“So a genius like Dumbledore couldn’t possibly be fooled by something pathetically dimwitted such as an age potion,” She said with an eye roll.

“That’s why it’s so brilliant,”

“Because it’s so pathetically dimwitted!” One of them finished the other’s sentence.

They hopped up onto the bench next to me and George shot a smile at me. I rolled my eyes and motioned for them to continue.

“Ready Fred?”

“Ready George?”

“Bottoms up!” They said together. The twins weaved their arms together and then downed a small bottle of the potion at the same time. They then jumped down into the ageline and everyone held their breath.

When nothing happened cheers erupted from the crowd and the twins cheered with them. They put both their names in the goblet and gave each other a high five. I looked at Hermione and she shook her head at me, I shrugged and turned back to them. Suddenly, the flame fired up and they were flung across the room onto the floor.

People moved out of the way quick enough that no one got hit but Hermione did a little huff of joy at her being correct. The twins looked up from the floor, their heads and faces were covered in long grey hair. They looked ancient and I laughed as they looked at each other in shock

“You said…”

“You said!”

The twins started rolling around the ground fighting and a crowd formed to watch. They were chanting “fight, fight, fight” over and over again. Hermione rolled her eyes and again returned back to her book. I got up and rushed over to the crowd looking at Ron.

“Aren’t you going to do something?” I asked him loudly in an attempt to speak over the crowd, and he looked at me funny.

“Are you kidding? This is the best thing I’ve watched in awhile!” Ron said with a huge smile chanting with the crowd. I turned to Harry and he shrugged his shoulders, where was Adeline when you needed her?

I sighed and began to push my through the crowd to stop them before they got in trouble. Suddenly silence coated the room and everyone turned to see Viktor Krum. We all watched in silence as his intimidating stature stalked to the middle of the room and placed his name into the flame.

The twins had long stopped their rustling and got up to watch with us. The blue flame grew in thanks again, and Viktor looked towards Hermione. She smiled slightly and returned to her book, with a slight blush on her cheeks. As soon as he had entered, he was gone again and the room murmured in response. His presence seemed to make the whole room change it’s mood.  
___

Adeline still wasn’t back as we sat at the large table during dinner. It bothered me greatly that she hadn’t thought to tell me where or when she was coming back. If Cedric had lost her somewhere I was going to smack the boy… I was so nervous about their whereabouts my appetite had gone down the drain.

Lottie, Pierre, George, Fred, and I all sat together. After a proper scolding from McGonagall she helped them return their hair to normal and they both talked to each other as if the whole roughhousing situation hadn’t even happened earlier. Although, instead of sitting next to each other George sat by me, I sat next to Lottie, and Fred sat next to Pierre on the other side. Suddenly George rose his hand and waved over by the doorway.

I squinted to see the two lovebirds absolutely soaked… and without robes? Well that was quick. They speed walked over to the table and sat down together gently, Adeline was straight across from me and I wanted to kick her.

“Merlin, where have you been?” I asked with a bit of aggression laced within each word. She could have at least told me that she was going to be late for dinner.

“Sorry, we were in the library,” Adeline gave me an apologetic smile and I returned a frustrated huff. 

“Oo the library,” Pierre wiggled his eyebrows and shoulders around. Lottie scoffed and kicked him lightly underneath the table, this only made him chuckle more.

“And where are your robes?” Fred asked with a bit of a smirk and I almost (almost!) laughed. The situation looked very bad, but I’m sure Adeline hadn't done anything… she wasn’t the type to rush things.

“They’re drying out from the rain,” Adeline started grabbing food and I joined her. Now that they were back I was absolutely starving.

“Did Dumbledore give a speech or anything?” Adeline piped up again and I was stuffing my face so I couldn’t give a snarky answer. I decided then that it was just better to drop the anger and move on.

“Just that students of age have one more day to enter their names into the goblet before the choosing ceremony,” Pierre said as an offhand comment. I kind of wanted to know why he wasn’t participating in the challenge. I considered asking but Adeline looked down again, she didn’t like talking about it and I was beginning to figure out why. She was worried about Cedric’s safety.

Pierre then decided to bother Lottie so he got up from his side of the table and sat down next to her, which made us all scootch over so Pierre was now in front of Adeline. Fred scootched closer to Adeline and George nudged me, I looked at him and he winked. What in the bloody hell was he on about?

Ron started coughing and choking a bit down the table and Hermione attempted to keep him from dying. Adeline scoffed in disgust before taking a sip from her water, poor Ron. Suddenly, her face looked crazed and a spray of water shot out of her mouth. It flew across the table and splashed all over the smiling expression Pierre previously had.

I gasped and Pierre’s face scrunched into a tight knit of disgust. Adeline started coughing profusely and Cedric put his arm onto her back, “Adeline, breathe.”

Fred couldn’t hold in his laughter anymore, he held his hand up to his mouth in an attempt to cover it. George snickered as well, now I knew what he was on about earlier.

“Fred I swear if we weren’t in this dining hall, I’d kill you,” Adeline’s voice was hoarse and I knew she wasn’t kidding.

“Here drink this,” Cedric handed Adeline his own cup and she took a big sip of it. That was sweet of him. Pierre grabbed a fabric napkin and started wiping off his face. He still had a look of absolute disgust in his expression and it took everything in Lottie to hold back her laughter. I couldn’t help it, even I laughed a bit.

“Pierre, I’m so sorry,” Adeline said sincerely before smacking Fred in the back of the head, “You’re supposed to pull the pranks on other people. Not on me you wanker! What even was that?” 

“Horseradish powder mixed with spring water,” He acted like it didn’t matter. I looked up from the chicken I was eating as I recognised it from the review sheet in potions earlier…

“But isn’t that supposed to be used for the-” I started before a loud laughter emerged from Adeline. She seemed a bit panicked but she didn’t stop... she wouldn’t stop until she got the cure.

“The laughing potion,” Fred seemed rather proud of what he had slipped into Adeline’s drink and I shook my head.

“How do you make it stop?” Adeline was doubled over in laughter and pain, I was getting worried. I turned to Fred expecting him to pull out the antidote by now.

“Uhm,” Fred hesitated. I couldn’t believe my ears, what was this boy thinking?

“You didn’t make a cure to it!” I yelled angrily as the hesitant redhead did a slight shrug.

“Make...it...stop…” Adeline could barely speak or breath within each laugh. I was beginning to think that Fred might have messed up the potion. She was laughing so hard there was no way it was a normal laughing potion.

“Someone figure out a counteracting spell and meet us by the quad,” Cedric ordered, he seemed to be quite frustrated, as was I. He led Adeline out of the dining hall and I knew what I had to do.

The hall was staring in Adeline’s direction as I ran over to Hermione. If anyone could answer my question it would be her. The trio looked up from their meals and I touched Hermione lightly on the shoulder.

“Hermione, could a Calming Draught counteract the effects of a laughing potion?” I asked her quickly and she thought about it for a second.

“Well I suppose that’s one way to do it. I’ve never seen it personally but I think it would actually work, I don’t know what the actual antidote to a-” She started explaining but I really didn’t have the time.

“I’m sorry but do you know where I could possibly find a bottle?” I interrupted and Ron piped up.

“I heard Madam Pomphrey has some right before OWLS for the fifth years,” He said with his mouth stuffed again.

“Ronald OWLS aren’t for another few months she won’t have them now! Professor Snape probably has the ingredients or a sample from a previous class-”

“Thanks Hermione!” I yelled and ran off before she could say anything else. I walked up to the professors table and they all turned to look at me as I nervously approached Professor Snape. God this was embarrassing.

“Professor, I need your help quickly!” I whispered at him and his face didn’t change. He stared at me with intimidating eyes, I was going to kill Fred for doing this to me.

“It’s Adeline, she’s under a-” Snape stood up quickly as I said her name and he began to rush from the table. I had to practically yell to get the last part out so he could hear me, “A laughing potion. I don’t think it was brewed right!”

“Bloom accompany me for the time being,” He calmly ordered and I speed walked next to him as we got out of the dining hall. We turned to the right following the direction they had headed, “Was it a laugh-inducing potion or a laughing potion?”

“I don’t know, Sir. Fre- uhrm they mentioned horseradish powder so I believe it was just a laughing potion,” I said and he made no expression. I didn’t want Fred to get in trouble seeing as I was already gonna beat him up.

“Since I’m not positive which potion it is I’ll have to use a-”

“Calming Drought?” I interjected for some stupid reason. He glanced down at me in disapproval for my manners and I felt like shrinking into the ground.

“Miss Bloom I doubt that I will be needing your assistance for the rest of the night. Return to the dining hall,” Snape said while continuing his fast but calm pace down the hallway, I could see Cedric and Adeline walking around a corner. Adeline’s usually contagious laugh filled the hallway and I was still worried.

“But-” I cut myself off as he walked further away. I stopped walking, there was no point in arguing as I’d probably just get in trouble… now the only trouble was figuring out where the heck I was.

Looking back towards where we had come from I realized hadn't paid any attention as to where we had turned. I walked down the long corridor turning left when I reached a wall, I knew we had come from that way but the passage forked and I wasn’t sure which way we had come from. I went left and scoured the hallways in search of the big doors.

“Come on, you didn’t walk that far! Where did-” I stopped talking to myself when I heard loud footsteps from behind me.

They were extremely close and walking very quickly. My heart rate quickened and I whipped my head around to see who it was. Suddenly, my back flew up against the wall and I gasped, the cold stone pierced through my robes and my head throbbed from being slammed roughly.

“Lost Bloom?” Draco sneered in my face and I was too shocked to say anything. He stood a few inches away from me and I turned to see if anyone else was in the hallway, there wasn’t a single soul… great. Luckily he kept some distance because if he was any closer I might have collapsed.

He had a menacing sneer on his face and his eyes were filled with disgust and amusement. I was taken aback to him being so close so suddenly, I wasn’t sure what to say, and I wanted to get out of this situation as quickly as possible.

“I-I’m sure I can find my way. Pardon me,” I was able to push a few words out my mouth as I turned away from him and began to walk in the other direction. I was surprised when his hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, I turned and looked at him in shock.

“How dare you turn your back on me?” He seethed and my mouth dropped open slightly. Okay so his father was rich and had connections, he was hot, and what? That’s it! Why did he think he had so much power at the end of his fingertips, he didn’t have the right!

“Let go of me before-”

“Before what?” He challenged. I opened my mouth to say something but hesitated. I didn’t know what else I could do in that moment really, “That’s what I thought. Now if you can cease your mindless wandering for a moment and listen.”

I huffed and faced him again, ripping my wrist out of his grasp. It actually really hurt and I probably should have just waited until he released it but hopefully it proved that I was tougher than he thought. I rubbed my wrist lightly in my hand and he scoffed.

“Have you told her yet?” The slytherin lowered his voice as if it was a secret. He seriously walked all the way out here just to throw me against a wall and ask a question.

“No, I haven’t found the time. Why are you so worried about it?” I scoffed and his jaw clenched again. It seemed to bother him greatly whenever I spoke to him and wasn’t stuttering. His tongue rolled against his cheek in frustration and he continued.

“Just a slight reminder. We wouldn’t want her to-”

“Get expelled I know,” I looked at him seriously. I didn’t like being threatened especially by him. When he didn’t say anything else I turned away from him to leave again which seemed to cross some sort of line, “Thanks for the reminder but my friend and I can manage without-”

“I said don’t turn away from me,” He grabbed my forearm and slammed me into the wall… again. He hovered closely to my body and I held my breath, his expensive smelling cologne filling the air between us. Our eyes met, those piercing greyish blue eyes were even more mesmerizing up close.

I grew flustered and quiet as we stayed a few inches apart, his hand gripping my forearm roughly. We just stared at each other's eyes, one filled with anger and disgust while the other with fear and confusion. His breath was heavy and his face changed a bit from anger, it was something different but I wasn’t sure what. As if he realised what he was doing he threw my arm to my side and scoffed.

The blonde spun around and stalked the way I was walking previously. I was left just standing there alone in confusion and flustered entirely to the point where I had to catch my breath. I rested my head against the wall and groaned, how did I already get an enemy? It was only the first day of classes! The bigger question was, why did my heart skip a beat every time his silver-like eyes pierced mine?

I allowed a bit of time to pass before I walked the way Draco had left. I didn’t want to bump into him again but I had to make it back before dinner ended and everyone was wondering where I was. Finally, I found the great hall. Snape must have been walking fast because I was a lot farther than I thought. I saw Lottie leaving the Great Hall and I realised that dinner must have just ended.

“There you are! We were wondering where you went off to,” Lottie smiled and Pierre chuckled.

“I saw daddy's boy coming from that way right before you. Do you have something to tell us Bloom?” Pierre smirked. What was with him and assuming everybody was snogging? I grew a blush again, as it was quite easy for me to be embarrassed.

“God no,” I rolled my eyes and Lottie gave him a look of disgust. He gave her a smirk and she rolled her eyes… were they always like this?

“Juliet is smarter than to fall for his stupid smirk. I mean did he have a stroke or something? Why is only half of his smile up all the time?” Lottie joked and we all laughed slightly. I couldn’t keep replaying the previous scenario, I was desperate to change the topic of conversation but I wasn’t sure how.

“But seriously Juliet, don’t mess with… that. Every girl has either been broken-hearted or is still grovelling over his leather shoes,” Pierre looked specifically towards a girl with dark brown hair chatting with a group of Slytherins, including Draco and the boys from potions. 

She laughed loudly at something Draco said and put her hand on his shoulder, in an obvious attempt at flirting. The group looked over in our direction and I quickly turned around, were they talking about us?

“What even gave you the thought that I’m even remotely interested? All he’s done is be rude to me and insult all of us for no reason,” I rambled and Pierre smirked again. Oh boy.

“Some people are into that sort of thi- Ow! Now that one hurt Charlotte,” Pierre flinched when Lottie punched him in the shoulder. I was glad she had interrupted him because I don’t know how I would have responded to that comment.

“You’re lucky I don’t do it again! And don’t call me Charlotte!” She glared at him and he rolled his eyes. His smile returned when he turned his attention to the hallway I had just walked from.

“Ah there are the lovebirds. She’s not laughing so that’s a good sign,” Pierre commented and I turned around to see Cedric walking closely to Adeline. 

I never thought that not laughing would be a good sign, but here we are. Cedric’s face was still one of concern and I ran over to meet them.

“Are you alright?” I asked Adeline quickly and she smiled at me.

“I’m fine but-” She turned her gaze from me towards the great hall where the two twins were walking out. I looked at Cedric and his eyebrows furrowed, oh boy. She immediately walked over to them and pushed Fred against the wall.

“You idiot! You didn’t even think to create a cure?” Adeline scolded and Cedric walked up behind her. It was almost comical to see little 5’8” Adeline yelling at the two towering boys while another giant was about to pull her away from absolutely decking them.

“Well that would spoil half the fun, wouldn’t it Georgie?” Fred laughed wholeheartedly and George joined in with him. Adeline seemed to cool off quickly and she rolled her tongue against her cheek.

“Don’t expect to get away with this Fred Weasley,” Addy threatened with a bit of a laugh, almost as if she already knew what she was going to do. I knew she’d come up with something… But to what extent? I’m not sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohohohohohohoho a prank war?  
> And a kinda spicy Draco scene as well? Y'all really have the life with this chapter huh!  
> What did you think Lovelies? We hope you e joyed greatly! Please check out Adeline's POV!  
> Love C


	10. The Assignment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hello Lovelies! It's been a bit so I'm going to basically spam upload like 4 chapters and then come back and edit the author's note and the photo when we have more readers. ENJOY!!!!

Cedric and Lottie never showed up. I would have been worried but Pierre swore that they were fine so we just left it at that. The rest of lunch was uneventful, but it didn’t stay that way for long.

“Hey, I need to use the restroom real quick. I’ll be right back alright?” I turned to Adeline as we left the hall. She nodded as I turned to the left.

“Other way!” Pierre said with a smirk on his face. I smiled and then walked to the right, the correct direction, with a bit of a blush on my cheeks. It wasn’t too long of a walk to the bathrooms, and I was sure I wouldn’t get lost.

I walked quickly turning around the corner only to stop in my tracks. Oh boy.

Draco and two other Slytherin boys, who I had learned to be Crabbe and Goyle, stood talking to each other just a few meters away from the girl’s room. They must have sensed me standing there awkwardly because they decided to direct their attention towards me.

“Well, look who we have here. Get lost again, hufflewus?” Draco snickered walking closer to me. Not his best insult really.

The boys behind him laughed idiotically like he was the Paul Anka of comedy. I ignored the comment and started walking again, steering as far as possible from them. Keeping my head held high I didn’t notice one of them stick their foot out, slightly tripping me so I stumbled.

“Can’t even walk correctly, Bloom? Probably the work of your mudblooded parents, can’t even raise a child correctly,” The blonde snickered, his goons gladly joining in.

“Don’t talk about my parents like that!” I whipped around and glared at him, my fists clenched at my sides.

“Or what?” He challenged. When I didn’t say anything Crabbe and Goyle laughed at my small attempt to stand up for myself and my family. I felt stupid backing down so early, but there wasn’t a single thing I could do that wouldn’t end up badly for my family and Adeline.

“Exactly. Just like that. People of your stature should do what you’re doing right now, shutting up and listening to your superiors,” He pushed and I scoffed.

There was no use in arguing with him, he’d just end up throwing some empty threat that risks too much and winning. That didn’t mean I couldn’t get in a few blows.

“You know what Draco? You’re a rude, scared little boy who can’t seem to do anything but insult others probably because you're too insecure about yourself. I don’t care who your father is, or how “pure” your blood may seem, you’re still just another bully,” I spat angrily.

Everyone seemed a bit taken back at my sudden outburst, but Draco quickly recovered. His eyebrows scrunched together in a fit of rage and his eyes darkened.

“Why you,” He stormed towards me whipping his wand out of his pocket. I was trying to get mine out when he flicked it out of my hand using a disarming spell. Suddenly defenseless, I froze.

He brought his wand up to my face in a threatening motion, the tip of it almost touching my throat. I kept my hands visible and pulled back my head in a bit of fear, attempting to hold back my quick breaths.

“You’re lucky I don’t use a spell on you right now, filthy little mudblood,” He seethed, extra amounts of hate and pure resentment dripped from every word, “I got this one boys. Go ahead and head back to the next class.”

I watched as Crabbe and Goyle hesitantly blumbered around the corner. Suddenly it was just Draco and I, out of a whole castle of students no one could walk down this one hall? He slowly lowered his wand and it felt like I could breathe again.

“I’m not going to hurt you, not yet anyways,” He scowled and practically muttered the last part, just loud enough for me to hear. I glared daggers at him, hoping my front would deter any sort of action he was planning on doing.

He scoffed and shoved a bit of parchment into my chest roughly. Confused, I opened the crumpled bit of paper to find a list of books and an assignment? It said something along the lines of:

Chadwick’s Charms I, II, and III

Charms of Defence and Deterrence

Cheering Charms

Jiggery Pokery and Hocus Pocus

Find each of these books in the library and write a short summary about a charm from each book. Of course if you become fantastically encharmed in the novel, a whole book review will also be accepted from one of them. I hope you can learn something from this Draco.

Professor Flitwick

“What is this?” I asked looking up from it in confusion. He rolled his eyes as if it was obvious and then I caught on, “Surely you don’t want me to do your homework for you?”

I was flabbergasted, how dare he shove this in my hand and pretend like it’s normal.

“That disgusting little dwarf decided to give me extra work instead of detention. Spineless halfbreed couldn’t even write it himself, McGonagall had to convince him,” He scoffed before continuing, “I would have just told my father and been done about all this nonsense. But I figured, why bother him when I have a mudblood to do it for me.”

My jaw clenched, I rather liked Flitwick and Draco probably deserved the assignment. It was utterly insulting that he would consider me so lowly as some sort of servant to him. I suddenly felt quite passionate about S.P.E.W, it’s not nice being treated so horribly.

“I’m not going to do your homework for you Malfoy,” I said roughly, while throwing the paper back at him. He just laughed quietly.

“You act like you have a choice,” He smirked while twirling his wand where I could see it. If I could disarm him, I’d surely scare him off.

My eyes darted to my wand, I decided that it was close enough to surprise him. I lunged for the object, immediately turning around and getting ready to use the disarming spell.

“Expelliarmus!”

We said it at the same time, but Draco’s spell was stronger. His wand flew out of his hand but mine not only did that, I fell back and slammed into the ground. It wasn’t a very powerful push, I had seen many powerful wizards completely launch other people back. Luckily, I don’t think he’s skilled enough to pull a spell at that strength.

It was enough to shock me a bit but I quickly recovered and scrambled for my wand. I heard a throat clear and I looked up to see that Draco had grabbed his own sceptre before I could get even close to mine. I groaned slightly and slowly rose to my feet.

He seemed proud of himself and proceeded to shove the paper back into my hand. I crumpled it lightly and rolled my tongue against my cheek. This time he decided not to lower his wand and instead started walking towards me. I didn’t shrink back and stood still with my head held high.

“I need this done today-”

“What? That’s impossible I can’t-”

“That’s not my issue. This better be done by the end of the day,” He placed his wand under my chin and moved closer to my ear. Chills shot up my spine when he whispered lowly, “Or you’ll regret it… deeply.”

I pulled away from him and attempted to hide my flushed cheeks. He didn’t say anything but I knew he saw my reaction, he didn’t stay much longer as footsteps were echoing in the hall. He stormed off and I stood there absolutely speechless.

“Merlin, what’s taking you so long?” Adeline scoffed as she quickly looked around the corner in perfect timing with Malfoy disappearing down another corner.

I considered telling her, letting her know how absolutely humiliated I was just a second ago but reconsidered. If I told her that, she would surely kill Malfoy and then we’d be expelled. If we get sent home, then we become a bother to our parents and infringe on their plans… whatever those were of course.

“I… got lost?” There was so much hesitance in that sentence that I didn’t really expect Adeline to fall for it.

“You got lost? You only had to walk down like 3 corridors Juliet,” She raised her eyebrows in suspicion and I laughed nervously.

“You know how it is,” I said with an awkward smile, we started walking down the corridor.

“Are you feeling okay? You’re acting… weird,” She asked a bit concerned, “Not a normal weird, a weird weird.”

“Uhm ouch! Don’t be so rude Adeline. I’m truly fine, just don’t tell anyone I got lost okay?” I laughed and she smiled

“Of course not, did you even have to ask? We better hurry if we want to catch up to the group, otherwise we’ll be late,” She was walking fast and we eventually caught up to the trio. I was glad too, because I’m pretty sure we would have gotten lost without them.

Luckily, I didn’t have any classes with… him the whole day. I had so much fun in the classes I really forgot all about the stupid book assignment and the encounter with Draco until after History of Magic.

“What’s this? You know you can’t turn in a mangled parchment like that,” Lottie chuckled while pointing at my pocket. We were leaving the classroom, but my stomach dropped in pure dread as I remembered the stupid assignment thing.

“Oh, uh yeah. I know! It’s just a personal reminder, nothing really important,” I rambled slightly. I wasn’t even entirely sure how to get to the library but I had a vague idea. Lottie smiled a bit at me but I think she knew I was fibbing.

“Listen, I have to run to the library. Is there any way you can help me with directions?”

“Oh yeah for sure! It’s on the first floor so we’re right next to it! I can take you there if-”

“No, no I- uh think I can find it. Thanks so much for the offer though! I have tons of… work to do, so I might not make it to dinner,” I smiled at her and then turned to Adeline who was talking to Ron about something.

“Hey, I have to run to the library okay? I’m not sure I’ll make it to dinner, I have to find an ancient ruins book,” I told her quickly and she nodded. Before she could ask any more questions I sped off down the hall, not before receiving a confused look from Lottie. We didn’t need to get any books for ancient runes.

I rushed down the corridor and scanned every hallway, room, and archway before I found the library. Luckily, it didn’t take me more than 5 minutes if searching but my mouth gaped at the size of the library.

Cedric had swung us by here the first night but it was closed, I hadn’t fully seen the inside until now. Tens of thousands of books sat on thousands of shelves, with hundreds of skinny rows. Desks littered the room and lined each row. There were plenty of little lamps illuminating every row with warm light.

It would have been amazing if I didn’t have to find 6 books and read them all within… I glanced for a clock and groaned. I had about 3 hours until dinner, and then the library closed at 8 for curfew. So I had about 5 hours, but only if I didn’t go to dinner, I considered whether or not 3.5 hours would be an adequate amount of time, and decided I’d come to a decision later.

I jogged down the columns in search of the charms section. I ran through almost the whole library before finally finding the stupid sign that read, “Charms.” I huffed as I realized how large the charms section was, there were about 20 rows full of books, not even considering the various carts that littered the walkway.

I was hoping they’d have organized their books better, but the sections were all messed up. I ended up having to scan every shelf, looking at my list every time I thought I found something. I ended up finding every book on the list, counting the 5 of them to be sure.

I glanced at the large clock that sat in front of the large library. It had taken me a whole hour to find all of the stupid books. My mouth dropped open in surprise, there was no way I could read and write about all of these in one night. I considered what the heck I was going to do if Draco decided to keep his threat.

If I stayed with people all the time, he couldn’t use any sort of spells on me… but I doubted I’d be able to do that all year. If he decided to get Adeline or I expelled, I was afraid there was nothing I could do. My stomach churned at the thought of him doing something to one of my friends… especially Addy.

I shook my head as if the thoughts and possibilities would rattle out at some point. I had to finish this, there was no other option. I took a deep breath, took out my quill, some parchment, and began reading. I’m not sure how he would fool Professor Flitwick with my hand writing but that wasn’t my issue.

At some point during the third volume of Chadwick’s Charms, I snickered and decided to put a little false information in my paper. I don’t think you actually need to wrap underwear around the end of your wand before casting the Fianto Duri charm, but I’m sure it would be an interesting experiment. If Flitwick read that far into the paper he might even laugh.

Under different circumstances, I would have found the novels kind of interesting… besides Chadwick’s Charms, they were our main charm’s textbooks in Ilvermorny and I had already read the first three.

The library slowly dwindled in numbers as the windows darkened into the night. I ended up not going to dinner, instead worked tirelessly until it was only 15 minutes until the library closed. I shut the last book and did a fist pump, I did it!

I felt proud of myself as I put the parchments together with a smile. It had taken some time, but I had made it… even if all that work was just to please a pretend hierarchy. I looked at the crumpled assignment on the table, and I looked down the rows quickly to see if anyone was nearby.

“Incendio,” I whispered and watched in enjoyment as the paper began to burn slowly.

Suddenly, my eyes caught something before the fire fully devoured the page. In a panic I looked through the papers, my heart sunk so quickly I felt like I was going to throw up.

There were 6 books, I had forgotten the one text that wasn’t a charm book.

Jiggery Pokery and Hocus Pocus.

I cursed and stood up quickly. I could still make it, I would have to check out the book and work in my dorm. The only issue was that this was a generic spellbook, it could be anywhere… and I had about 13 minutes to find it.

I grabbed my things and rushed away from my desk quickly. The only chance I had was finding the librarian, she’d know where it could be. I ran from the charms section as quickly as possible, I was pretty far back from the front desk. Suddenly one of my papers flew out of my hand and I had to turn back and grab it.

I must have looked foolish, running in the library at such a late hour. My hair was sticking out of its bun multiple places, my reading glasses almost slipped off my nose while I clambered all my things in an attempt to keep everything together.

“Excuse me,” I said in between breaths as I ran up to the lady sitting at the front desk. I glanced down and saw the plaque that said her name hanging on the desk, “Madam Pince, could you help me? I have to find “Jiggery Pokery and Hocus Pocus” as quickly as possible.”

“Funny. A boy your age just checked one out, there should be another copy in the transfiguration section. Although you better hurry, I don’t stay late for students,” She said never looking up from her large book. It seemed to be some sort of inventory, but I didn’t look for long.

“Thank you ma’am” I turned from her and ran towards the area I remembered seeing earlier.

I glanced at the clock, I only had about five minutes left. I set my stuff and scanned the books as quickly as possible. A few didn’t have their names on the spines and I had to pull them out, scanning the cover quickly.

I ran down each row reading as quickly as possible. I was able to make it to the last row and finished, I didn’t find it. I slammed my hand on the table and clenched my jaw, I was so close. I heard the clock chime loudly signaling the end of the day.

I had to hold back tears of frustration, I wasn’t sure what to do. I grabbed my stuff and started making my way towards the exit, I was angry. Angry that I didn’t finish, angry that I missed the stupid book, angry that I didn’t get dinner despite me being hungry, and angry at the boy who didn’t give me a choice. I was furious at the boy who believed no one was good enough but him, the one who believed that my death would be a gift to the world, the one with eyes that always made mine grow soft.

My pace grew quicker and I felt my fists grip tightly onto the papers. Lights started turning off as the library closed. Suddenly, I was pulled into a towering row of books. I took in a gasp of air in surprise, almost losing my balance the only thing holding me up was the stranger.

“What the-” A cold hand covered my mouth as someone walked past the row of books quickly. The librarian was grumbling while heading towards the transfiguration section.

When the hand didn’t leave my mouth I ripped it off my face and spun around to yell at them. I faltered slightly when I realized who it was. My breath caught in my throat and I backed away from him.

“You’ve run out of time Bloom,” Draco slowly walked up to me, I backed up until I hit one of the bookshelves.

He placed his hand on the shelf beside me and leaned closer to my face, waiting for my reaction. I attempted to keep my eyes away from his and cleared my throat. My cheeks were a bright red and I didn’t know what to say, if it had been anyone else I would have shoved them off.

“I- I got the other books done. I’m sorry, but I didn’t have the time to-”

“You had plenty of time, are you so thick that you can’t review a few books?”

This angered me, did he have any idea what I went through to get this done?

“If it’s so easy, then you should have done it,” I spat and he only lightly laughed at this.

“I have to admit, you did a lot better than I thought you would. You’re not as idiotic as I took you for,” He said smugly, I tried not to react.

I jumped slightly when he slammed a book on the desk next to me. I swallowed and squinted my eyes to read the cover with the dimming lights. Fury and astonishment bubbled up through me as the words finally sunk in.

Jiggery Pokery and Hocus Pocus

“You had it the whole time?” I looked at him in shock.

“And you were so close,” He said in a mocking tone, pretending to be sympathetic.

I clenched my jaw and looked him in the eyes, those stupid eyes. I gripped the shelves behind me and considered tackling him. He enjoyed my reaction, found it amusing.

“I think my favorite part was when you thought you finished. The look of defeat that overcame your face. You lost Bloom, and the funny part is that you thought you even had a chance,” He laughed and I scowled.

He planned this whole thing, he knew I wouldn’t finish in time. He found pleasure in my suffering and I hated him for it.

“Here’s your assignment Draco Malfoy, I hope it was worth it,” I said absolutely done. I turned to walk away, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.

“Have you forgotten already? You didn’t finish and there’s… consequences to things like that,” He threatened and I glared at him, although my mind was rushing to different places.

There were too many things he could do to me in the dark library… all alone. A lot of the options weren't exactly PG-13. My heartbeat quickened as he leaned in closer to my face as if he was about to kiss me.

He used his finger to tip up my chin, so our eyes made contact. I was so close to him I could smell the peppermint lacing his breath, and his cologne seemed to blur my vision. I couldn't leave the depths of his eyes until he tipped his head to the side slightly. His lips were only a few centimeters from mine.

I didn’t protest, instead, I leaned forward in a way to tell him that I was okay with it. He smiled and brushed his thumb over my lips softly. I closed my eyes in wait but instead, I got a slap in the face.

Not a literal slap, I’m sure most of you just basically had a heart attack. He chuckled and pulled back. His face was smug and I cringed slightly, I fell for his taunt like an idiot.

“These better be good, Bloom. Especially now that I got to read an extra book because of your incompetence,” Draco warned slightly, completely acting like the previous encounter hadn’t happened.

I didn’t say anything when he grabbed the papers and the book, obviously ready to leave the conversation. I just stood there, still in shock of the previous scenario.

“Oh and Bloom, try not to drool every time you see me. It’s disgusting,” He spat before stalking off and out of sight. My face turned red with embarrassment and rage.

I had never drooled over him and didn’t plan on it either. In fact, the only thing I had ever done even remotely likable to him did not punch him in the gut when he tried to kiss me. Adeline was right, he was infuriating, absolutely… I peered towards the entrance to see him turn around the corner into the brightly lit hallway.

Wow, he’s got a nice back... Wait wtf? Merlin’s beard, Juliet you creep. BLAH! Youhatehimyouhatehimyouhatehim… inner-manifesting.

It took an entire minute before I was able to completely refocus. I shook my head and then walked into the hall. I got lost at some point and the two Gryfindor boys from D.A.D.A. helped me out. I learned their names were Dean and Seamus, both were very kind but also a chaotic duo.

When I finally reached the dorm Lottie and Maryann looked up from their books when I walked through the doors. When I finally reached my bed I collapsed into the sheets happily, without a word. The covers were warm from a copper bed warmer, and I sighed pleasantly.

“So… where were you?” Lottie asked with her eyebrows raised. A slight smirk plagued her face.

“What do you mean? I told you I was at the library,” I looked at her confused as I began to undress for bed, hesitantly pulling away from the soft quilt.

“Oh come on Juliet!” She huffed putting her book down, “It’s obvious you were somewhere else, we don’t need a book for class and there’s no way you had all that work. We all have the same classes as fourth years remember, except for the electives. And we have Ancient Runes together so that rules it all out! Now, I’m just trying to figure out what-”

“Or who,” Maryann interjected with an eyebrow wiggle which made Lottie laugh before continuing.

“-was worth skipping dinner over,” They both turned to me in wait.

My cheeks were a fiery red and I couldn’t come up with any words. Draco’s assignment and the interaction in the library flashed through my mind. I hated lying… I’d have to come up with something.

“I… had to do some extra work for Charms!” I caught up with the twist as it quickly came together.

“Really,” Lottie rolled her eyes and huffed, “That’s the best you can do?”

“Hey! I really was doing extra work, I had to read some Ilvermorny textbooks probably because I was transferring,” I threw my pillow at her and she ducked, accidentally hitting Maryann.

“Sorry, Maryann,” I giggled and she shook her head.

“Adeline didn’t have anything to work on, just saying,” Maryann smiled a bit in a teasing manner.

“I take my apology back, you deserve to be hit by that pillow,” I frowned and she pretended to hold her heart in shame and hurt.

“Oh come on Juliet! Just tell us who you were snogging!” Lottie burst out a bit loudly which made Maryann let out a large laugh.

“Oh, yes! Please do tell!” I jumped slightly as a muffled voice came from the left side of the room.

I grabbed my shoe and lobbed it at the wall and huffed.

“Pierre quit listening in you weirdo!”

As soon as the bottom of the shoe hit the wall I heard a huge thump as if someone had fallen. The noise must have startled Pierre enough that he slipped backward. I heard a huge bellowing laugh come from… Cedric?

“That’s karma for this morning mate,” He yelled between laughs, just loud enough for our room to hear.

I heard more laughter from the other side and I rolled my eyes. I then directed a glare at Lottie for yelling so loud, she just laughed along with Maryann. They found the situation so amusing that they completely forgot about the library incident and moved on.

After a few minutes of giggling, we all decided to head to bed. Turning the lights out I thought about the library and the books. My mind wandered into that row… the smell of mahogany seemed to resurface in the room as the memory came back. The only difference? The kiss was absolutely magical.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope you enjoyed it my darlings!
> 
> Remember to read G's story aswell!


	11. 9: Clock's Ticking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, Lovelies! It's another chapter just for you! (No one is reading this besides G and I but... you know how it be) Enjoy the chapter because the next one...it's a bit... spicy :,)

"JULIET GET UP!"

I practically fell out of my bed when someone screamed at me. My hair was all over the place and I attempted to bring it out of my face. After Adeline had approached Fred we all returned to our dorms and went to bed for the night.

"What! What's happening??" I scrambled to get up as the two other girls rushed around the room grabbing their things. Maryann seemed especially distressed as she pulled her hair into a messy ponytail.

"Andrew forgot to water the Flutter-" Lottie started before Maryann interrupted her.

"We're gonna miss breakfast!" The dark-haired girl wailed as if it was the end of the world. Lottie rolled her eyes at her drama and returned to her own scrambling.

"How much time do we have?" I ran over to my own trunk and whipped out my robes.

"We're not sure, the clocks have all stopped," Lottie said while running to the mirror.

"What? Why would-"

"We're not sure but I heard that a Slytherin messed up a spell, since they're all the way in the dungeons the towers weren't affected. And they decided to tell everybody BUT any of the Hufflepuff prefects about the incident," Lottie answered my question before I could even ask it.

"I'm going to kill those Slytherins if we miss breakfast," Maryann practically growled as she slipped on her shoes. How had she gotten dressed so fast? She stood up and paused at the door before Lottie spoke without looking up.

"Go ahead!"

"Thanks Lottie, I love you," She said before sprinting out the door. I pulled my hair into a high bun, I'd have to take a shower soon.

Suddenly, a huge bump sounded from the left wall. A painting was about to fall from the action when Lottie dove to catch it, getting up to bang on the wooden walls.

"BOYS, CAN YOU NOT DESTROY THE WHOLE BASEMENT?" Lottie screamed in order to reach through the underground walls. I didn't know that we were next to the boy's dorms

"SORRY!" A muffled voice came from the other side and I recognised it to be Pierre's.

"We're neighbors to the boys' dorm?" I asked her, almost tripping as I pulled my skirt over my legs.

"Sadly, getting our own bathroom means we're next to one of the prefect's dorms. Cedric chose to share his room with McCoy, I couldn't tell you why he stands that boy," She rolled her eyes. I scoffed slightly at this, she was so crushing on Pierre, "Have something to say Jules?"

"Well it seems you two-"

"DON'T finish that sentence!" Lottie threatened as she finished tying her yellow and black tie.

"Alright, alright. I won't bring it up until you're ready to admit that he's kinda cute," I snickered to myself, barely dodging a flying pillow. Lottie scoffed and then continued to get ready, trying to cover up the smile that resided on her face.

I pulled up my socks and buckled my shoes before running to the mirror and adjusting everything. Finally, ending up hooking my robes to my uniform. I turned to see Lottie pulling her braids into a bun, I was surprised at how perfect they seemed to be even after sleeping. Even Maryann's hair seemed perfect when she left, whereas mine shot little flyaways everywhere.

Lottie and I grabbed our wands and textbooks, running out of our dorm to see the common room in chaos. Multiple people were running around in circles attempting to get ready.

"Did someone get Andrew's dorm up?" I turned to see Cedric ask as he quickly walked out of the boy's tunnel. Pierre followed closely behind.

"Yeah, Macmillan did!" An Irish boy yelled from the fireplace where he was sitting. He didn't have any shoes on and was determined to search the crowd thoroughly.

"Good morning Lottie, everyone up in the girl dorms?" A blonde girl rushed by Lottie, I assumed she must have been one of the prefects.

"Morning Hannah, everyone is out of our dorm but I didn't check the rest," Lottie said before turning to Pierre who was scanning the room of bustling people. He seemed to make eye contact with the irish boy and pointed at him.

"Thanks for letting me borrow your shoes, O'Brian!" Pierre yelled. I watched in horror as he chucked two shoes tied together across the room, barely missing Hannah's head. Pierre cringed as she glared at him.

"Sorry Abbot!" He yelled out as she huffed and entered the girl's tunnel. He noticed we were standing there and made his way through the crowd to us with a smile. Cedric followed close behind, I noticed he was holding his head slightly.

"Good morning Ladies," He approached us, lightly hitting Lottie with his shoulder. She rolled her eyes and quipped back.

"I see your throw still hasn't improved over summer," She smirked and he scoffed.

"Still better than you, Love."

Lottie seemed a bit flustered at the nickname and looked at her feet to hide her embarrassment, "Don't call me that McCoy."

"Do you both know what happened?" Cedric asked us just loud enough to be heard over the other voices in the common room.

"Yeah Lottie told us. What happened to your head?" I asked concerned and he seemed to just remember what happened.

"Oh this? Someone decided to leave their trunk open and in the middle of the floor," Cedric shot a quick glance towards Pierre and he cringed.

"Sorry again mate," Pierre seemed sympathetic, "That's nothing though, you should have seen what happened to him at the Ravenclaw game last year."

"Well, let me see just to be sure," I motioned for Cedric to lean down so I could see the top of his head. He moved his hand to show a slightly bruised bump on his hairline.

"Ouch, we can probably go to the medical hall if you want," I said while turning to Lottie. She was too busy glaring at Pierre to notice me.

"Oh no need. I've had my fair share of injuries Jules, I can handle a slight bump," Cedric chuckled and I smiled lightly. He called me Jules... only Adeline had ever called me that, but I hoped it would catch on. It was sweet that he remembered my nickname, I would have to tell Addy about it.

"Well you know it doesn't really matter since the Quidditch season is cancelled this year," Pierre's conversation stuck out of the crowd and Cedric cringed slightly. I turned to see Lotties mouth dropped open in surprise.

"WHAT?!?!" Lottie yelled while turning to Cedric in a rage I had never seen from her before.

"Well... Dumbledore decided that the tournament has taken up all the school resources and time, so that means no more Quidditch season," Cedric rubbed the back of his neck as he broke the news. My heart sank and Lottie groaned.

"That stupid tournament, they can't do this! Quidditch is way more important than some school collaboration project!" Lottie ranted.

"I'm sorry Lottie, there's nothing I can do. I tried to talk to them last night in the meeting, but everyone decided it was better to focus on the tournament," Cedric explained and Lottie huffed.

She muttered some things that I'm probably glad I didn't hear and Cedric shot a glare towards Pierre. He shot his hands up in defense.

"I didn't know it was a secret!" He said quickly, Cedric rolled his eyes at this.

"So you assumed it would have been best to just bring it up out of nowhere? To the person who loves Quidditch more than half the school combined?" Cedric asked him like it was the dumbest decision ever made.

Pierre was quick to defend himself but I was too busy to pay attention. Lottie's fist was clenched and she was looking towards the ground in defeat. My heart was heavy for her, she seemed to really enjoy the sport and it was just ripped from her life so casually.

"Hey Lottie, are you okay? I'm so sorry this happened," I spoke softly and gently side hugged her. She looked at me in appreciation but her eyes were still sad.

"Quidditch is so important to me. I can't stand missing another season due to the school's dumb rules. It was my Mom's favorite thing to do, she was even on a professional team before..." Lottie took a quick breath and wiped under her eyes, perking up slightly, "But there's nothing I can do about it now. There's always next year right?"

"Right," I smiled at her and she turned back to the group. I didn't know about her mom... my heart hurt horribly and I wanted to cry for her. She didn't seem to want to dwell on it, but I hoped she knew she could talk to me anytime.

"Okay we should probably get going, the exit is going to be filled soon," Cedric commented and we all filed in front of the large tunnel.

One by one we jumped from the entryway and began to jog towards the great hall. I looked behind us to see that Cedric wasn't kidding, Hufflepuffs were stringing out of the secret door like monkeys in a barrel.

We finally made it to the dining hall and I was first to notice familiar faces. Ron, Harry, Hermione, Easton, Ginny, and Addy all sat at the table. I wasn't sure where the twins went but they were probably up to no good.

I sat down next to Lottie and Ginny with an exhausted huff. This was not the best day so far, but at least all the other houses seemed fine. Adeline looked at me quizzically and Easton straight up seemed to be not having a good time while the two boys sat next to him.

We immediately began filling our plates with food. I wasn't sure how much time was left but I didn't want to have to go the rest of the morning without food, I was starving. Everyone else from Hufflepuff did the same thing, not truly paying attention to anyone else.

"What took you all so long?" Adeline asked while looking at how quickly we were serving up.

"The alarms never went off. Something with the Slytherins messing something up, I think," I said not really paying much attention to the question. I was too focused on getting the wonderful smelling food in my mouth. I put something cinnamon in my mouth when Easton spoke up.

"I'm gonna go, see you later," Easton stood up from the other bench to leave. I looked at him and smiled, he didn't really acknowledge it and left. It was an incredibly awkward scenario but he probably just had more important things to do.

"Okay yeah, see you later," Addy said while watching him leave the great hall. He seemed kind of upset this morning and I almost got up to check on him, "You guys do realize there's still twenty minutes of breakfast left, right? I think you're shoving food faster than Ron and Harry did that morning before the world cup."

The memory of Ron looking up and dropping a bit of bread from his mouth was a lot funnier than it should have been. I couldn't hold back the laugh that broke from my chest, which wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't been drinking pumpkin juice at the same time. I covered my face as much as possible as pumpkin juice sprayed out of my nose.

I just pulled a Violet from Incredibles 2.

Everyone erupted into laughter and I grew red, that was so embarrassing. My nose stung from the orange liquid and I had to hold back slight tears, it didn't hurt that bad but you know how sensitive noses are. I couldn't look anyone in the eye while I grabbed a napkin and wiped the mess up, but even I giggled a little bit with everyone else.

"I think you two need to focus on keeping your drinks in your mouth and not in other places," Pierre commented as he calmly grabbed another bite of his breakfast. I guess we weren't in a hurry since we still had twenty minutes left.

"Hey at least she didn't spit it out on you this time," Adeline commented quickly and I laughed under my breath. I looked down to see the other Gryffindors, I hadn't really said good morning to them yet but a sudden movement distracted me.

Addy suddenly twisted Cedric's head to the side quickly and I noticed that blood was running down his head. He wasn't bleeding earlier, and he said he was fine!

"Uhm what are you doing Adeline?" Cedric asked confused while looking at Pierre. McCoy seemed just as lost and shrugged his shoulders.

"Cedric, you're bleeding," Addy commented while looking for the source. Did he fall twice?!?

"See what you did Pierre," Lottie slightly scolded the hufflepuff. I looked at him disappointed as well, how could someone make their roommate hit their head twice?

"Hey he was the one who tripped over it!" Pierre put his hands up in defence. Wow, very good of you to take the blame bud.

"Only because you left it in the middle of the floor!" Cedric looked at him with slight disbelief.

"Left what in the middle of the floor?" Adeline asked while focused on cleaning the blood off of Cedric's neck. Adeline was always quick to help people, whether they wanted it or not. I always appreciated that about her, she could always tell when something was wrong and never hesitated to put her whole life on pause to make it right.

"I forgot to push my trunk back under my bed last night and then ol' Cedric here woke up in a rush to get the boys dorms up and tripped right over the trunk and splat, right on the ground he fell. But of course he has to make things more challenging than they need to be, so then he also hit his head on the leg of the other bed in our dorm," Pierre even made sound effects. Everyone leaned over to look at his face with eyebrows raised, and Pierre just shoved another bite of food in his mouth.

"Thanks for that wonderful description Pierre. Nicely done," Cedric said with sarcasm dripping from every word. Pierre smiled, food puffing out his cheeks in a comical way. He looked like a hamster and I had to look away before I encouraged it with my laughter.

"Okay, I don't think you're bleeding anymore," Addy said with a sigh. She placed the napkin she was using to tend Cedric's wounds far down the table.

"Thanks Adeline," Cedric smiled while checking his head lightly. I thought it was cute and couldn't help letting a smile sprout on my face. I looked and saw that Hermione and Ginny shared the same knowing smirk, Addy noticed this and rolled her eyes. She couldn't help sharing a small smile as she turned back to her food.

"Oh yeah, here's your robe," Adeline pulled the large clothing from her lap and Cedric grabbed it lightly

"Thank you. I forgot about it last night," He stuffed his arms through the sleeves and clasped the clip on the front. He then turned back to Adeline with a big smile, his eyes softened when they made contact with hers.

"Yeah I did too, glad they're dry though," Adeline smiled, still looking at Cedric. They were too busy being caught up in each other to notice Pierre making fun. He clasped his hands in front of his chest and sighed, mouthing 'young love' dramatically. Lottie rolled her eyes but everyone else chuckled lightly. Although, Ron and Harry were completely lost and they looked to each other for answers.

Silence coated the table as everyone finished their food lightly. It wasn't too long before Hermione spoke up.

"We're gonna go to transfigurations now, we'll see you guys later. Adeline do you want to come with us?" Hermione and the Gryffindor boys stood up getting ready to leave.

"I'll wait for Juliet and meet you guys there. North hall right?" Adeline asked and I was impressed. She already knew the lay of the land way before I did.

"It's on the ground-floor by the middle courtyard," Hermione said while looking at Adeline hesitantly. Adeline's face changed to an unsure look... I took back my previous thought.

"Uh, yeah we'll find it," Adeline said, although Hermione still seemed a bit unsure she decided to head out of the great hall, Ron and Harry following close behind her.

"So where's the middle courtyard?" Adeline turned to me when Hermione was a bit further away. Oh boy.

"Like I know," I was done eating, this whole new school thing was nerve wracking and I lost my appetite.

"It's kinda over by the greenhouses. I'll just walk you both over there," Cedric said gently while pushing his plate away. I pouted slightly, it was really sweet of him.

"You don't have to, you can just explain where to go from here," Adeline said as nonchalantly as possible. It was a kind thing to do, but I secretly hoped he'd still walk us there. I know for a fact we'd get lost before we even got close to the greenhouse.

"It's fine, I have some extra time anyways since the meeting about- uh...was last night instead of today," Cedric said and Lottie dropped her fork loudly. Everyone jumped and I looked at her quietly.

"I just don't get why they have to cancel! Can't they work around the tournament or just not let the champions play?" She grew frustrated again and put her head in her hands. Adeline was just straight up confused.

"Wait, they cancelled the quidditch season?"

"Dumbledore decided that since the tournament would be taking up a lot of time and school resources, we needed to cancel quidditch this year. Most of the prefects agreed and I tried to talk them out of it but there was nothing I could do. I really am sorry Lottie," Cedric explained again. It wasn't his fault yet he acted like it was, he really loved the sport too.

"Yeah whatever I guess we'll just really have to step up next year," Lottie said in a finalisation of the conversation. She didn't want to dwell on the negative I suppose.

"Are you two ready to go?" Cedric asked, not leaving much time for the awkward silence to return. Pierre was still eating and Lottie twirled her fork around her plate in an attempt to stay distracted.

Addy nodded and I stood up with her, I made sure to give Lottie a little squeeze on the shoulder to which she lightly smiled.

"See you guys later."

Pierre nodded, not entirely paying attention. We walked out of the great hall in a quick pace, heading too... Transfiguration? Yes.

As we turned down a couple of hallways that all looked exactly the same, we encountered a group of Slytherins. Draco Malfoy was at the front, I recognised a few of his friends snickering behind him and I put my head down. If we minded our own business and walked by them quietly, they might have not even realised we were there.

Adeline audaubily groaned when she saw him and I immediately regretted not telling her about Draco's "warning" earlier. I kept my eyes low but shot them back up when Malfoy chucked my shoulder with his, to which Adeline immediately decided to confront him about it. Why did he always have to show up at the worst times?

"Watch it Malfoy," Adeline spun around and took an aggressive step towards him. I thought that he would have flinched like he did last time but he stood confidently in his position, maybe because more people were with us. Luckily, Cedric grabbed Addy's arm gently and held her back.

"Did you tell your guard dog what I said mudblood? The clocks ticking," Draco sneered and I narrowed my eyes at him. How bad would it really be if I got expelled? He smiled at my reaction and then continued stalking off with his goons.

"What is he talking about?" Adeline turned her attention towards me and I sighed. She didn't seem angry with me, but I knew for a fact that she didn't like to be kept in the dark.

"Malfoy wanted me to tell you that if you don't lay off, then he's going to get you expelled. I was going to tell you I just never had the chance to," I said, diverting my gaze back to the ground. I'm not sure why I procrastinated so much on the conversation, but we were having it now.

"How am I the one who's gonna get expelled if he's the one causing all the problems?" Adeline scoffed. I huffed, she wasn't listening to me.

"Because his family has power and he gets what he wants. You can't let him get to you so easily," Cedric added, which I was extremely grateful for.

"Seriously Adeline, if he gets you expelled, what are you going to do?" I asked her.

"I don't know but-"

"No," I interrupted, "Our parents are counting on us, we can't take any risks. If you leave him alone and don't let him get to you, then he'll ignore you and that's better than getting you expelled from Hogwarts."

"Well if he didn't exist then it would be easier," Adeline commented and Cedric scoffed.

"I'm serious Adeline," I looked at her with a blank expression and her frown turned a bit more serious.

"Okay I'll try. He's just so... infuriating," I couldn't have agreed more.

_____

Transfiguration went by quickly and I was able to walk with Hermione to Charms. The class was pretty full, but since I walked in with Hermione Professor Flitwick pointed us to sit with a blonde haired girl. When she spoke I immediately recognised her from the first night I experienced Hogwarts.

"Hello, Hermione. Hello, Juliet," Luna smiled lightly as we sat down. I was happy to have a class with her, she had proven to be quite kind.

"Hi Luna! How has your day been so far?" I asked her kindly over Hermione who sat in the middle. Hermione was quick to work on other things

"Quite well, thank you for asking," Luna lowered her voice and leaned closer slightly, "The fairies have asked about you, they miss your songs."

I smiled huge a grin at the thought and Luna calmly turned back towards the front a small smile still residing on her face Hermione looked at me confused but I didn't have time to explain before Professor Flitwick started talking.

The class was extremely uneventful as we just filled out reviews. Hermione never really talked about anything except to correct some things that I had messed up and ask Luna how she had figured out what motion of the wand to use on the Aqua Eructo Charm since it wasn't in the textbook.

Luna had lots of interesting things to say, a lot of it was about creatures and little comments about certain charms. She was really smart, as was Hermione so they did most of the review sheet. I tried to help but Charms wasn't my best subject and they ended up correcting a lot of my answers.

"That's it then," Hermione set her quill down and then got up to turn the paper in. Flitwick congratulated her on good work and Hermione sported a proud smile. I looked around and noticed that we were the first to finish, which I was surprised to see a few annoyed stares at the feat.

Hermione sat down proudly while Luna still sported a dreamy look, her mind always seemed to be elsewhere yet here at the same time. I huffed slightly and rested my chin in my hand. Hopefully Adeline was having more fun, so far this paperwork was not my idea of learning.

Soon Charms was over and we all decided to go to the great hall for lunch. We sat in the same place as this morning, Harry joined us, Luna split off to a table that Ginny was sitting at, and I looked around for Adeline. Today had been incredibly boring besides our encounter with Draco and I was getting a bit restless.

"Do you want a button Harry?" Hermione asked him as he sat down.

"A button? What for?"

"It's for that movement I wrote to you about, S.P.E.W?" Hermione retorted with a serious face.

"Oh... that one," Harry said, his eyes darting past her to the Ravenclaw table. I followed his gaze but was distracted when Hermione huffed.

She seemed cross that he wasn't paying attention to her so I decided to ask her about it. Bad move on my part.

"What's S.P.E.W?" I smiled and she got excited.

"Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare," she said it much faster than I could understand but continued anyway, "It's a movement to help House Elves earn wages and have freedom! Would you like to have a button?"

"Oh, uh sure," I smiled and she handed it to me. House Elves were a complicated subject.

I hated the way house elves were treated, lots of wizards physically abused their elves but they still seemed to worship the ground wizards walked on. Lots of house elves lived to serve others and I heard of many stories of house elves being released and being miserable. I still didn't think it was okay for people to treat them so horrid or that all elves were considered to be rubbish.

I was glad that Hermione was distracted by being cross with Harry, because when she turned away, I put the button in my robe pocket. I wasn't sure what the best option for house elves was and I needed to know that before I took any large stand against the subject.

"I don't know how you can be so light on the subject, you saw personally how Dobby was treated by the Malfoys," Hermione scolded, which made me a bit taken back. I looked towards the Slytherin table hesitantly, I didn't think Draco was THAT bad.

"Oh I need two sickles as an entrance fee," Hermione turned back to me with a smile.

"Oh! Uhm, I don't have any money with me right now but maybe later?" I was a bit hesitant. I doubted this would go anywhere, especially if she was charging people to join.

"Hermione! You're making people pay?" Harry seemed just as astonished as I was.

"Well of course. It's a sensible fee and we have to get supplies somehow," she said matter of factly.

At this point I noticed Adeline, Ron, Easton enter the hall and walk towards us. I was glad to change the subject and beamed at them. They sat down with smiles and before Hermione could ask them to join the society Ron started speaking.

"Bloody hell, I could eat this whole table," He immediately scooped stuff up and I saw a bit of drool go down his face. Hermione elbowed him when he tried to treat the mashed potatoes like playdough.

"Maybe don't choke this time Ron?" Addy half joked, but seemed quite concerned as he stuffed his face.

"Maybe don't choke on your drink this time Adeline," Ron shot back and I snickered a bit. Addy's eyebrows shot up in surprise but didn't say anything else.

Soon Pierre sat down at the table with a huff next to Harry and I smiled at him. He seemed kind of stressed and my smile flipped into a frown at the sight of it. His mood immediately changed and I basically got whiplash when he started grinning again.

"Hello everyone. How's the day going?" Pierre chirped, most of everyone just looked at him briefly and continued eating after answering the question. He was so sweet, I pouted slightly.

"Fine, thanks," Harry didn't pay much attention to it and instead turned to Ron.

"Quite alright," Hermione shot a glance towards her badges with pride. I wondered if she had made them today.

"I'm good, thank you, Pierre," I added with a smile

"Splendid. How are you?" Adeline was sincere about the question and I smiled.

"Uhm, well Flitwick has us all writing an essay about charms. It's only our first day!" Pierre said with a frustrated sip of water. I cringed slightly, I was glad I didn't get assigned that in charms earlier that day.

"Is that just for your year?" Adeline asked a bit nervously, looking up from her food.

"Yeah, just for fifth years. A load of rubbish if you ask me... whoops," Pierre said with a bit of a cringe when he set it his cup down too hard and water splashed up the side.

"Where's Cedric at? And Lottie?" Adeline asked while looking at mainly Pierre. I smiled at how quickly she had become friends with everybody, it was nice to see her so open. In Ilvermorny, she would close off to almost anyone but me, I was worried it was going to be the same way here... but I was pleasantly wrong.

"Don't worry, lover boy is on his way. He got caught up with something," Pierre sent a wicked grin past Harry to Adeline. Everyone looked up at her waiting for the denial. Harry seemed uncomfortable with the fact that this was happening right over him, Ron was confused again, and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Thank you Pierre. And where's your girlfriend...Lottie, was it?" Adeline seemed proud of her comment. This time everyone looked towards him with our mouths partially open.

If Lottie was here she would have stabbed Addy with a butterknife, luckily that wasn't the case. Pierre blushed and looked at the table quietly.

"She's not my girlfriend," He muttered. No, but you wish she was boy!

"And Cedric's not my lover boy," Addy said matter of factly. Pfft same thing to you!

"Oh sure, whatever you say miss 'I'm not in love with you, but I want to be with you every minute of every day and when we're apart my heart aches to be within your reach again because I'm deeply infatuated with you Cedric Amos Diggory,' " Pierre said dramatically as if he was in a shakespearean novel, not that I would know about anything about that... especially, Romeo and Juliet.

"First off, I'm not in love or infatuated with him Pierre McCoy, and at least I don't get shut down from calling the other 'love'. How's that going for you by the way? Have you tripped over your own two feet while gazing at her from across the hall?" Adeline practically slapped him with her words. I wanted to say something like, 'oooooooo burn' but I felt like it might not have been a good time.

"No, I haven't Adeline Finley, and it's going great. At least I haven't become the school's next big couple to gossip about," Pierre added with a winning smirk. If there is anything you MUST know about Adeline... it's that she refuses to lose.

Harry seemed like he wanted to disappear as he was leaning back so far from being in the middle of the conversation that it looked like he was defying gravity,

"Want me to announce your crush to the whole hall so then you can become the next big thing? HEY EVERY-"

Adeline was cut off by Pierre throwing the contents of his cup in her face, like an offended Victorian lady from an old film. Harry flew back in surprise fully losing balance and crashing onto the floor. Ron had his mouth hanging open with chicken hanging out of it, Hermione stood up to check on Harry, I was flabbergasted, and Pierre seemed to regret every life decision he had ever made.

"Oh shit," Pierre said in absolute shock. Adeline scrunched her eyes and then used her hands to get rid of the water dripping off her face.

"I'm sorry I didn't-I didn't want you to say anything..." Pierre started again, he seemed really nervous. I wasn't sure why everyone thought Adeline was going to kill them... well, okay I take that back.

"How refreshing. It was a bit hot in here, wasn't it," Addy said calmly. When people are calm when they should be angry, that's when you know you messed up.

"Adeline, are you-I'm sorry. Please don't kill me, like you're going to kill Fred," Pierre rambled. He was such a sweetheart, but I still feared for his life.

In all seriousness, I don't think Adeline has ever done anything seriously damaging to other people. Well, besides that time she decked an older boy at Ilvermorny for making fun of a first year... and the time she gave someone a concussion for calling me fat... Well, also there was the time she used a spell to embarrass one of the school bullies in our 3rd year in front of the whole school. Okay, so there was plenty of times she had used violence as an answer but I don't believe she'd ever react horribly to being splashed with a bit of cold water.

"I'm not going to kill you Pierre. I'm just hungry, aren't you?" Adeline said while scooping a bit of mashed potatoes on her plate. Everyone seemed to lean in, waiting in anticipation for what she was going to do.

"I'm starved, actually," Pierre nervously chuckled before turning to grab his own food. Suddenly, Adeline flipped the serving spoon full of mashed potatoes sending them smack into the side of Pierre's face.

"Enjoy your meal Pierre. I hear the potatoes are extra delicious today," Adeline smiled as if nothing happened. Pierre was just as shocked as Adeline when she was splashed just a bit ago. She turned back to her own food while Pierre huffed and accepted defeat. I think we were all thinking the same thing as we all began eating again.

Good move, Addy. Good move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adeline lowkey scares me and for some reason G thinks it's absolutely hilarious.   
> What do you all think?!?! Do you like the way I'm depicting Draco, it's difficult to get his personality correct...  
> Anyways, please comment or vote or give kudos, share even! I think you all are amazing and I give you big smooch. MUAH  
> Love, C


	12. Four Champions?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Holy moly I just realized how much support we've gotten so far! Thanks so much for reading everyone I love you all :) Please enjoy!!!

“If you don’t hurry you’ll be late!” Lottie said while grabbing her wand. She decided to go without the robes and stuck it into her pocket, before beginning to rush out the door.

“Don’t worry Lottie! I just need to finish this, you go on ahead, I’ll catch up,” I turned to see her hesitantly standing at the doorway, “Go! I’ll be fine!”

The day went by quickly as everyone was excited for the champions to be chosen. The only really memorable part was getting my letter from my parents at breakfast, and I was responding to it quickly before heading back to the great hall for the choosing. They set the students loose for the night but gave the option to come back later to watch the ceremony, which I guessed most would attend.

I reread the letter quickly to compare it to mine so I was sure I covered every one of their questions.

Juliet Lynn Bloom,

Hey kiddo, it’s dad. Your Mum couldn’t quit crying and was making the ink run so I volunteered to write the letter instead (you know how she gets the first few days you’re gone, it’s especially bad with the… situation.) At home, we’ve had many debates about the scenario and it looks like we may be moving to London with the Finleys. Don’t get your heart too invested in it yet half-pint, it’s still on the ropes. What house did you get sorted into? Is the quidditch team any good? Although if your mother guessed correctly I think I already know the answer to that question. I hope you’ve made some friends, we knew a few of the students' parents back in the day, I’m sure. One of my… classmates is even a professor, last I heard! Although I bet you two galleons there are still a few of MY teachers still working. We heard that the Triwizard Tournament is taking place this year. I'm delighted you get to see some action while you’re there darling! I know it’s corny but your Mother wanted me to add that we miss you incredibly even though it’s been only a few days. (she elbowed me when she read that)

Love, Dad, and Mum

P.S.On a more serious note, rumors are picking up. Your mother feels we shouldn’t plague you with this but I need to be sure that I’ve done all I can to make you sure you’re safe. Stay with your friends, they’re your best weapon. Keep an eye out and stay wary (I know it’s hard for you to accept this. But some houses tend to house some iffy wizards and not all people are good. It’s better to stick away from those folks). Stay safe sweetpea.

Dad was going to be heartbroken that the quidditch season was canceled, but at least he was happy with whatever house I got. Although it had been a topic of discussion at home, Mom swore I’d be in Hufflepuff while my Dad swore I’d be a Gryffindor… my Mum will probably gain a galleon or two when the letter arrives.

My gut lurched a bit every time I read the part about being wary. Mr.Finley is a great man and he was in Slytherin, it was unfair to judge people off of their house. I knew my father had an appreciation for Slytherin’s considering one of his friends is a part of the house, and it was probably smart to be cautious of the house that produced the darkest wizards.

My Dad would probably kill Malfoy if he knew he was even talking to me based on the reaction of others to his last name, our parents probably knew of the family. I wondered who was in the same year as my parents… Snape?

I checked the time and realized I was going to be a bit late. I ditched my robes, finished the last bit of my letter, and stuffed it into my pocket before running out. I made it to the great hall just as Dumbledore was sitting people down and I searched for familiar faces.

I found Lottie sitting with a group of Hufflepuffs that included Maryann, Cedric, Hannah, Pierre, Ernie Macmillan, shoe boy (from yesterday morning), and a few others I didn’t really recognize. I sat across from Cedric next to Lottie and they all smiled at me. I considered pulling my hair back into a bun as Dumbledore eerily began to dim the lights, but decided to leave it down seeing how smushed we all were.

I spotted Adeline, Ron, Harry, Hermione, and the twins on benches next to the cup with other Gryffindors. Some Slytherins, including Draco Malfoy, was straight across. For once, Draco and his goons weren’t snickering but leaned into the center of the room in anticipation. Dumbledore moved into the middle of the room and lightly placed his hands on the goblet.

A bright magenta hue covered the room as the flame balled into itself. Excitement arose as a charred bit of parchment flew into the air out of the fire and landed in Dumbledore's palm.

“The Durmstrang champion is… Viktor Krum!”

The Durmstrang boys cheered proudly, their headmaster beaming with pride. Everyone didn’t seem surprised he was chosen but instead was absolutely ecstatic that his name was even mentioned. I glanced at Ron and snickered lightly, he was clapping harder than any of the other students.

Viktor rose and exited out the room past the head table and all the standing professors. The whole flame process started again and everyone quieted. A small neat bit of parchment fluttered down into Dumbledore’s hand, and we watched in anticipation.

“The champion from Beauxbatons... Fleur Delacour,” Dumbledore yelled… you could tell he was enjoying being dramatic.

One of the main girls of Beauxbatons rose elegantly with a huge smile. The ladies cheered but you could tell some of the boys from Hogwarts were entranced as she waltzed by, I swore Ron's mouth dropped open and even Pierre’s eyes faltered.

When she had disappeared my heart fluttered, this was the most exciting part. I wondered who would be joining them, it would be an honor to even know a champion from what I had heard.

“The Hogwarts champion…” Dumbledore paused for longer this time and everyone at the table held their breath.

“Cedric Diggory!”

Cheers erupted from the Hufflepuff group and beamed with excitement. Cedric seemed overjoyed as the boys surrounding him encouraged him to get up in pride, I was ecstatic that a Hufflepuff AND a friend was a champion! Lottie shook my shoulders in excitement as she cheered and clapped louder than I thought was possible.

I smiled and glanced over to the Gryffindors where Harry, Ron, and Hermione seemed just as excited. The twins… not so much. But my eyes faltered when they landed on Adeline, she was even paler than the night he entered for the tournament. She attempted a smile as Cedric walked by but I could practically see her shaking from here… she was scared for him.

Cedric walked past the other tables and received a proud smile from Professor Sprout and Professor McGonagall. When he had disappeared around the other corner I glanced over to the Slytherins, Draco seemed slightly disappointed for the choice but cheered lightly. I looked for Easton and Luna, they both seemed to be just as excited as everyone else.

“Excellent! We now have our three champions! But in the end, only one will go down in history. Only one will hoist this chalice of champions, this vessel of victory the Triwizard cup!”

Dumbledore pulled back a sheet that covered the glowing trophy. I gazed in awe as it seemed to send out the complete aura of victory, pride, competition, and excitement. It made me want to jump up and volunteer to take Cedric’s place, cheers erupted from students and the staff of Hogwarts.

Suddenly it was reduced to murmurs as the flames changed color again. The adults looked a bit panicked while Dumbledore walked into the room, catching another parchment.

“Harry Potter…” The headmaster barely muttered

All eyes stared at Harry in astonishment and shock, his face mirroring our own complete and utter shock.

“Harry Potter?” He asked a bit louder which made a few of the Professor’s gasp.

Hagrid seemed especially distraught as he mumbled no to himself and stared at Harry as if he had heard a death sentence. Ron’s face turned from shock to anger and I looked to Lottie in confusion, she didn’t look back at me.

“Harry Potter!”

The room was absolutely silent while Hermione lightly shoved him and Adeline assisted with bringing him back to his senses. My mouth hung open slightly in shock as he walked past Dumbledore who handed him his paper. He seemed more confused than disappointed but both showed. Professor McGonagall seemed like she was going to have a panic attack.

“He’s a cheat!”

“He’s not even 17 yet.”

A few voices rose in anger, one from a Slytherin group and another from our own Hufflepuff table. I realized it was Hannah and I glared slightly, didn’t she notice how surprised he was? The last thing Harry needed was a death game, he wouldn’t have ever entered!

He walked past the professors slowly, Hagrid in shock. McGonagall touching Harry’s shoulder in comfort, Snape glaring suspiciously, and the other headmasters looking absolutely furious. When he disappeared around the corridor hesitantly, murmurs and riots rose from the crowd.

“Go back to your dorms!” Dumbledore said nervously before stalking off with a group of Professors out the door.

“Pottah! The “chosen one” couldn’t even spend one minute not being in the center of attention. Most have been lack of parental attention or something, making everything about him!” Draco spat angrily to the girl I had seen him talking with earlier as they walked by Lottie and I, out the door.

“You’re absolutely right Draco. How do you think he did it?” She asked before they got out of hearing range.

“You don’t think he did it on purpose do you?” Lottie asked me with her eyebrows furrowed.

“Did you see his face? There’s no way he was expecting that… I don’t think Harry is the type to-”

“Harry Potter has had the most eventful three years here already. He wouldn't do it on purpose,” I heard a deeper voice and turned to see Dean speaking with Seamus and Neville.

“Are you kidding me? I think it’s brilliant, having a Gryffindor in the tournament, proper representation,” The Irish boy sang, which earned a few glances from nearby Hufflepuffs.

“Finnigan, watch your mouth!” Angela scolded slightly, the twins trailing behind her.

The conversation expanded into the whole hallway, it was as if all the students within the area were having a meeting about Harry Potter.

“There’s no way…” Hermione suddenly entered the scene beside me, muttering under her breath as if solving a riddle.

Ron glared angrily at the ground and I realized Adeline was walking right next to me. She seemed confused and unsettled… I put my hand on her shoulder and slightly smiled. She returned a worried glance and I squeezed her shoulder and looked towards Pierre.

“Maybe he did it on purpose…” Pierre muttered lightly, he seemed a bit annoyed at the notion.

“It’s probably not best to talk about it until they make some sort of announcement right? Harry hasn’t even explained anything to us yet, we can’t just assume things. Maybe they’ll say he can’t even play,” I added lightly. Harry has already probably received a good jolt of shock, he didn’t need everyone else being angry with him.

“He’ll have to. It’s a magical contract to the game, there is no way he can withdraw,” A voice came from beside me and I jumped lightly. Where was everyone coming from?

Easton shot an apologetic smile to my reaction and I smiled at him. I feel like I hadn’t seen him for days, although it wasn’t too long ago. Adeline was too encaptured in her thoughts to really contribute to the conversation.

“He probably just wanted to take all the glory for himself,” Ernie scowled from a bit away. This made the Gryffindors and Lottie glare at him. We didn’t need a civil war here, Maryann scoffed at him lightly and he shrugged it off.

“Juliet's right, he needs an opportunity to explain himself,” Adeline added for the first time that night and I smiled at the support.

We were silent as we split off to head off our own common rooms. My mind raced with possibilities, if Easton was right Harry would have to compete in a tournament that is based for above 4th years… he wouldn't stand a chance.

We were all silent as we made our way to the common room. We all got dressed into PJs but I wasn’t in the mood to sleep… I was too worried about the tournament and my two friends who were competing. I laid in bed for a bit until I thought the two other girls were asleep.

I sighed, swinging my legs out of bed and placing them into the slippers I placed earlier. I reached into my nightstand and pulled out my headphones and my phone. Quickly and quietly, I cracked the door open and walked through the tunnels. I was greeted by an empty room only lit by the warm glow of the fire.

I sighed and moved to the small warm kettle of water in the corner of the room, making a small cup of warm lavender tea. I would have preferred hot cocoa, but the sugar would have only worsened my current insomnia. With my warm mug of tea, I sat down on one of the couches

I was surprised when a feather sprouted from one of the pillows and landed on my eyelash. To say these pillows and chairs were overflowing with stuffing would be an understatement. I pulled my legs up underneath me and lounged on the couch in wait for sleep.

I plugged in my headphones and opened Spotify, I was happy to see that my Mom’s charm had worked. The bars were full, as was the battery. I smiled slightly before clicking on my playlist I made for specifically these moments. It was literally titled “Lavender Tea.”

“I stay up late and I talk to the moon and I can’t stop telling him all about you,” I hummed under my breath lightly. The song was so sad but the rhythm put me into a calming trance, I smiled lightly as the light from the fire danced along the walls in sync with the rhythm.

I held the mug up to my face, letting the steam roll over my face. Taking a deep inhale of the calming smell I closed my eyes for a second. I was happy in this place, with my new friends and with the old… even the enemies weren’t too bad. Well, I take that back… they were pretty horrid.

I sat alone for a few minutes, only breaking out of my trance when I felt someone on the sofa. I turned quickly in surprise, ripping my headphones and hiding both under the pillow next to me. I didn’t think he noticed because he was looking at the fire with an intense gaze.

“Oh! Cedric, How are you?” I looked at him with a smile, it was only then he actually turned to face me.

“Harry has to compete in the tournament. Mr. Crouch said so himself.”

“Oh…”

I looked at the ground for a second in silence. This was supposed to be a happy night for him, but all this mystery had ruined his whole victory. I felt sorry for him… and Harry. I could only imagine all the dumb things people were saying about him at the moment.

“How’s Adeline? She seemed a little upset at the champion ceremony,” Cedric asked lightly.

He spoke as if I was going to start crying if he raised his voice barely above a whisper. I took a moment to gaze over his features in the fireplace lighting, there was no denying that he’s attractive. His brown hair seemed slightly ruffled as if he was messing with it nervously earlier, and his hazel eyes bounced from confusion, hesitation, and concentration.

I smiled at how he was concerned about Adeline, even after all that had happened today.

“She’s worried,” I sighed lightly with a bit of a knowing chuckle, “She doesn’t like it when people take risks alone, especially when she can’t save them from the consequences.”

He didn’t say anything, instead, he turned back towards the flame. We sat in comfortable silence before my eyes began to feel heavy, I couldn’t hold back a yawn. When Cedric noticed this he stood up and moved in front of me.

“You should go to sleep, it’s late,” He smiled and stuck out his hand for me to grab.

I smiled and took it before turning to place the mug in the small bin next to the kettle. Before I could take a step, the tall boy stopped me and grabbed the mug from my hands.

“I got this, get to bed,” He nodded towards the girl tunnelway. Before I could object he was already at the sink rinsing the cup lightly. I grabbed my phone and hid it behind my back

“Thanks, Cedric. Congrats, on becoming a champion,” He paused from what he was doing for a second and I continued, “Goodnight!”

“Goodnight Jules,” He smiled and then placed the mug in the small tub of dishes to be sent to the kitchens.

I breathed a sigh of relief on my way back to the dorm, I was happy he didn’t see my phone. Considering he’s a prefect and all, it would be risky to let him know I have it in the first place. But the feeling of relief got swept aside as I grew slightly giddy. He was worried about Adeline… just as she was worried about him.

How much more romantic can it get?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: A little bit of smol Cedric here... I literally adore him.
> 
> Should I make a TikTok to promote this book?
> 
> I hope you enjoyed don't forget to smash that like/Kudo/star button! We need the support, have a great night darling :)


	13. Nimbus 2001

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Ohhhhh this one is a bit spicy :) You'll love this I promise (still pg13 thought. We're not heathens... yet ;) Enjoy and please try to keep it together

“Adeline!”

I ran towards her, sneaking around other people. She swirled her head towards my direction, smiling at me. I was glad she seemed a bit better this morning, hopefully, my cheering up plan would work.

“Whew, okay. Good morning!” I said when I finally caught up to her. We were just entering the great hall for breakfast.

“Good morning. Someone’s cheerful,” She raised her eyebrows slightly but continued smiling.

“I feel like it’s going to be a good day,” I put a little spring in my step and hummed slightly to myself. But I stopped as if the energy was sucked out of me as I realized something.

Harry Potter was sitting all alone. For once, Hermione and Ron stayed distanced further down the large table. I noticed that most of the Hufflepuffs sat together this morning, although Cedric, Pierre, and Lottie weren’t inside yet. Adeline and I made eye contact in hesitation, where were we going to sit?

“Harry?” Adeline asked with a bit of sympathy flashing across her face.

“Harry,” I smiled lightly. We nodded and then moved towards that section of the table.

“Ahhh good morning ladies!” Suddenly a tall figure grabbed onto Adeline’s shoulders lightly and walked her in the direction of Ron and Hermione. Fred?

“How was your sleep?” George asked while he placed his arm on my shoulder. They swept us both into their walk, Adeline and I next to each other, and the twins on opposite sides. I looked at Adeline confused and she seemed slightly annoyed.

“Well, it was fine but-” Adeline started before she was interrupted by Fred.

I turned my head to look back at Harry. I was happy to see Luna, Dean, Seamus, Neville, Ginny, and a few other Gryffindors join him. George lightly directed my head back to where we were walking. I huffed slightly and looked up at him with a bit of frustration.

Why did he have to be so tall? Just standing next to him made me feel like I was the shortest girl in the world.

“If you want to sit with pretty boy Diggory-” Fred began.

“-you’re going to want to stay clear of Potter for a bit,” George added in.

“That’s ridiculous,” Adeline rolled her eyes, “Cedric doesn’t care who I’m sitting with.”

“Sure about that?” Fred seemed to notice something by the entrance, which caused us all to turn around.

Cedric was standing next to the door looking at Adeline with a soft gaze as if waiting for her to make a decision. Pierre was standing next to him talking loudly to ‘the shoe boy’ not seeming to notice the tension. Lottie made eye contact with me with eyes that said, “I am uncomfortable with the energy we’ve created in the studio today.”

Adeline took a deep breath in and stared back. Diggory didn’t seem angry, or judgemental, he just seemed… unsure and even regretful. He glanced towards the Hufflepuff table that was cheering him on, telling him to join the group. I realized then that he regretted not choosing Adeline immediately, he knew it was wrong to not join a person because others disliked them at the time.

Adeline offered a smile and nodded at him as if telling him it was okay. At this, he turned to the huge group of yellow that cheered louder as he sat with them. He smiled and laughed as Pierre said something. I turned to see that Adeline was sitting next to Hermione and Ron.

I sighed and sat down, the twins sat on either side of us, I smiled at Lottie as she sat across from me. It wasn’t a huge deal, since we weren’t sitting with Harry himself… but that didn’t really matter, Harry wasn’t a bad kid and he didn’t deserve the side glances he was receiving. Even his own close friends didn’t believe him, which made no sense to me.

The conversation danced around the situation, treating Harry’s name as if it was a loaded gun that could fire any second. Ron seemed especially silent, which was too strange. Hermione was uncomfy, I think she wasn’t on anyone's side in this rivalry between the redhead and brunette, she just wanted it over with.

The twins weren’t phased, chatting happily about random things, mostly the tournament. Lottie spoke to Adeline a bit about quidditch in an attempt to lighten the mood, Ron didn’t even lift his head at the subject despite his love for the sport.

The rest of the day went by with the same awkward conversations whenever Ron was present. Harry and Ron’s thickheaded, pompous, and silly argument was interfering with everyone else and it was bothering me greatly. By the end of the day, I had enough with the silly elephant that everyone was trying to squeeze by.

A person from the daily prophet stopped by to interview the contestants at some point and everyone seemed excited to see the article, even I was curious. It was supposedly going to be released this Saturday, which was only a few days away. I walked out of my second to last class of the day.

“I’ll see you later Adeline,” I called out tiredly. And she gave a small wave before turning down a different hall, Astronomy was next which was one of my favorite subjects.

“Hey, Bloom!” Someone called out and I stopped at the voice.

I turned to see Easton walking towards me with raised eyebrows and a small side smile. I smiled at him and waited until he was out of the crowd, his dark brown curls laid messily on his forehead. I took in a bit of a sharp breath when I made eye contact with his dark brown eyes, he was extremely attractive,

“You have Astronomy next right?” He asked, his voice in a serious tone.

“Ye-” I squeaked lightly and then cleared my throat, I was so awkward I wanted to slam my head into a wall, “Yes, I do.”

“Do you know where the astronomy tower is?”

“Uh, yeah,” I had a pretty good idea.

“Do you know how to get to the astronomy tower?” He smirked lightly and my face reddened a bit. Did I mention that he was extremely attractive?

“Okay, that one is a no,” I laughed slightly.

He chuckled lightly and then started walking, “Follow me, Bloom.”

“Oh no, you don’t really need to-”

“I have that class as well, I wouldn’t walk you all the way up to the astronomy tower for the sake of kindness,” He said in a bit of a duh tone, but seemed slightly amused.

“Oh, well… thanks anyways?” I laughed a bit.

“You’re welcome… Capulet,” He looked at me as if gauging how I was going to take the nickname.

“Oh hahaha, very funny,” I rolled my eyes.

“What, you don’t like it? I thought it was very clever,” He shrugged lightly.

“Oh yes, very clever. Definitely, one I haven’t heard of yet,” I said sarcastically, but I couldn’t help smiling.

“I’d like to see you do something better,” He scoffed as if it was impossible.

“Challenge accepted. I could call you…” I struggled to find some sort of nickname, only one sticking out in my mind. I couldn’t help the loud laugh that emerged while I said it, it was the dumbest idea I had ever come up with, “Weston?”

“That’s horrid. Is that the best you can come up with? Weston?” He laughed, the first real one I had ever heard from him. It was a nice laugh, it seemed held back but each chuckle was laced with a bit of a rasp which made it seem more genuine.

“Hey at least it’s better than CaPuLeT,” I mocked and he gave me a silly look.

“It’s way worse than Capulet.”

“Okay, yeah you’re right,” I chuckled.

“I’m always right,” He straightened his robes cockily and smiled at my reaction.

“Okay,” I scoffed, “Don’t get too cocky now.”

“Is it cocky if it’s the truth?” He smiled in pride and I scoffed again, lightly hitting my shoulder with his.

“Yes, Easton. Yes, it is,” I smiled and he laughed again.

I looked at his face as his nose scrunched with each chuckle, he was nice. Maybe we’d be closer than I thought. When we finally reached a small classroom, I was a bit taken back. The class was full of Slytherins and Ravenclaws, I was the only Hufflepuff there!

I scanned the class to see if I recognized anyone, my stomach dropped to see bright blonde hair in a large group of Slytherins. Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Blaize, the brunette girl that enjoyed clinging onto Draco’s shoulder, and another blonde gal that I recognized from previous classes but didn't know very well. They all hung on the outer edge of the group, leaning against the desks.

My eyes shot away from them quickly, in hope none of them saw me. Besides them, I was looking at a group of complete strangers.

“Hey, Easton. Come on over here!” Another boy in a blue tie called out. He had long black hair, pale skin, and a larger nose.

Easton smiled and motioned for me to follow him. He may not be kind enough to walk me up to the astronomy tower for no reason but he was kind enough to let me burst in on his friend group. I smiled at the boy and the two others that sat next to him.

“I’m Michael Corner,” He stuck his hand out and I shook it.

“Juliet Bloom, nice to meet you!” I waved to the boys next to him who just gave me a slight nod before continuing their conversation.

Michael smiled again but then turned to engage in the conversation the other two were having.

What a… pleasant group, I thought

I looked at Easton in an attempt to gauge his reaction but he acted like it was normal. He sat down at a desk and I joined him.

“Hello, class! My name is Professor Sinistra, and I’m excited to explore the stars with you this year,” A younger woman with a warm smile approached the podium, grabbing everyone's attention.

The class was pretty packed, and I was just hoping she wouldn’t bring me up.

Please, please, please don’t call my name.

“As most of you may know, this is not the regular classroom nor time we will be meeting in. I wouldn’t be making this speech, but I want to be sure the new students know where to go,” Every single head turned towards my direction and my face went red. Malfoy muttered something that made his group laugh, besides the blonde girl who rolled her eyes.

“Most days we will be up on the top floor, where you can find the staircase right beside this door. We will also be meeting on Wednesday nights, at midnight, Thursday evening when the sun sets, and occasionally early in the morning classes on Friday. The schedule is not set in stone so you’ll have to remember when I tell you what times we’ll be meeting. Now then, let's begin!”

_____

“Harry choked back tears,” Hermione read from the large article before taking a break to scoff, “Choked back tears? This whole article is rubbish, Harry’s not even 12!”

“Is it really? I’m sure Harry is quite happy with all the attention he’s got,” Ron muttered before glooming back to his food again.

It was Saturday, the article by Reeta Skeeter was posted early this morning… and well to put it lightly, she seemed like a real… not nice person. I mean the way she depicted Harry was totally wrong, like he was the constantly high rebel of the school who rode skateboards, vaped peach flavored death juice, and inhaled Monster Energy Drinks for nutrition. Which, he was not.

Hermione sighed at Ron's comment and returned to being uncomfortable. I looked away from the flashing image of Harry and focused my attention on the door. Adeline wasn’t going to come to breakfast, not today. I turned to Ginny and whispered to her.

“Is Adeline still in your dorm?”

“Yes, I don’t think she’s feeling too well…”

“Okay, thanks,” I smiled at her and stood up. Today was the anniversary of something big, something horrible. I didn’t enjoy talking or thinking about it and neither did Addy, so we never did. I didn’t want to dwell on it too long.

“George, Fred,” I walked over to them and bent down slightly, “I need you to get me into the Gryffindor common room.”

“What? Yeah, sorry Bloom but that isn’t going to happen,” Fred said with a bit of a smile before turning back to Angelina.

“The common room is supposed to be secret,” George said lightly with a shrug.

“Please! I have to check on Adeline…” I furrowed my eyebrows in concern before the twins looked at each other.

“No one really follows the secret dorm rules anymore aye Freddie?” George turned towards him with a bit of a smile.

“Very true, Georgie. Except for the Hufflepuffs that is,” Fred raised his eyebrows at me and I stomped my foot lightly.

“Look, I need to get in. Are-”

“Boys quit being so difficult and go help the poor girl,” Angelina rolled her eyes which made Fred chuckle.

“You ruin all the fun, you know that?” The redhead said while standing up from his place on the bench.

“Yeah, whatever. I hope Adeline’s alright,” She said looking at me sympathetically after glaring at Fred.

“Thank you,” I smiled at her.

“You’re welcome!” Both the twins said at the same time.

I rolled my eyes and we went off to Gryffindor tower. The most difficult part was definitely the stairs, I couldn’t keep up with how quickly they were moving. At one point I attempted to step on a stair when both the boys grabbed my arms before I could.

I looked to the side of me and noticed a leg size hole in the wood where someone had obviously almost fallen through.

“Skip that one.”

“It’s a fake step for intruders.”

“Neville stepped through it a few days ago.”

The twins bounced back and forth between their sentences and I jumped the step.

“Merlin, that’s a bit dangerous don’t you think?” I was a bit concerned at the fact that these stairs could literally KILL someone.

They looked at me funny and scoffed.

Oh yeah, they’re Gryffindors… danger is their middle name.

We finally reached a portrait of a lady staring down at me. The twins stopped and turned in my direction.

“Another Hufflepuff! Why you would think this is every house’s common room at this point!” The Portrait laughed in a loud high pitched voice as if it was the funniest joke in the world. I chuckled slightly at the joke and she gasped, “Oh I like this one, she’s got a sense of humor! I won’t tell McGonagall if you don’t.”

She winked at me with a smirk and I smiled politely. The twins turned to each other and snickered, I was lost as to why they thought that was funny...

“Cover your ears and hum,” Fred ordered.

“I’m sorry?”

“It’s a secret, you can’t know the password,” George explained with a silly looking smile.

“Oh, alright!” I smiled and covered my ears, humming lightly. I closed my eyes as well to be sure I couldn’t read their lips.

I waited for a few seconds until one of them tapped my shoulder, I opened my eyes and quit humming to walk into the large red room. It was huge, with dark red accents on everything. The common room was quite the sight, although it wasn’t as cozy as Hufflepuff’s, it was still amazingly majestic. I looked around the room with a smile before turning to see Fred and George already walking up a staircase.

“Girl dorms are this way!” One of the redheads yelled and I smiled, hopping up the stairs. We finally reached a long hallway, where we stopped in front of a door… presumably Adeline’s.

Fred knocked and George straight up pushed through the door, I walked in before they could reach inside. I thought maybe their attitudes would probably be the best to cheer Adeline up but I wasn’t sure she wanted to cheer up… this was her day of grieving, and it was the only thing that kept her grounded throughout the year. I had tried to help her with… letting go, but it felt wrong to push her when I hadn’t even dealt with it correctly myself. It was selfish of me to pretend like it didn’t happen, that it was all some fever dream… but that was the only way I could deal with things like this.

“Hey,” I smiled at Adeline. George began to try and shimmy past me, he didn’t seem to read the room very well.

“Boys, I got this one. Thank you for bringing me up here but I think Adeline needs to be with her thoughts for a bit okay?” I spoke quietly to them. Surprisingly, they seemed to understand immediately and without a snarky comment just gave a thumbs up and left.

“The boys let you in?” Addy asked while sitting up slightly, I smiled at her and gently sat at the foot of the bed.

“I only had to ask a few times,” I spoke softly as if raising my voice would cause her to crack like the fine china Mr. Finley had… before you know, the death eater situation, “Do you want to go to breakfast with me?”

I had already eaten but if it got her a breath of fresh air I figured it would be a good try.

“I’m not hungry. Thanks though,” She moved her gaze to her fingertips, avoiding looking into my sympathetic eyes. I figured she’d say no… but it was better to try than not try at all.

“Okay, that’s fine. Did you want to do anything today? Our first Saturday being here and all,” I wanted to give her an opportunity to forget what day it was… even if it was only for a minute.

“Not really. I’ll get ready for dinner later though,” She smiled. I half thought it was only because she’d known I’d worry if she didn’t eat.

“Okay well, I’ll see you later then. Are you sure you don’t want any company?” I was hoping she’d say yes. Adeline wasn’t afraid to say what she wanted or ask for help, but I wanted to be there for her. This was her choice, her day, not mine.

“No, I’m good. Maybe later,” She smiled lightly, although her eyes still stayed misty. I knew better than to persist and decided to leave. I nodded at her and then headed out of the room, through the common room, and out the painting. I was surprised to see the twins.

“How is she?” Fred asked seriously

“Well, I didn’t think she was going to live but… she pulled through. She’ll be alright… just needs time to process today,” I said with a sad smile to which the twins responded with their own.

“Thanks for waiting by the way, I wouldn’t have made it all the way down the stairs without you two,” I smiled and a grin spread on their faces.

“No problem,” George said while Fred smiled mischievously.

“Yeah, we couldn’t let a cute little Hufflepuff like you fall to your death,” He joked and I scoffed.

“I’ll have you know, I play quidditch!” I said in a weak defense to my toughness level.

“We know,” They said at the same time before turning back down the stairs.

After me almost dying 4 times on the way down we finally began our walk to the great hall on stable ground. At some point, I bumped into Cedric who seemed slightly worried.

“Juliet, do you know where Adeline is? She didn’t come in for breakfast…”

“She’s up in her dorm, she won’t be coming to breakfast today… because,” I struggled to find a reason, “It’s Saturday?”

Cedric raised his eyebrows slightly but then something seemed to dawn on him suddenly.

“Thank you, Juliet,” He sincerely made eye contact with me which took me back slightly.

“No, no problem!” I was a bit surprised when he rushed off towards the direction we came from. What was he on about?

“Well, we’ll see you later kid!” Fred said while walking backward from me, George doing the same.

“Kid? You’re like a half a year older than me-” I started before George interrupted.

“Big plans for today, can’t waste around when we could be doing much more important things,” He said looking towards Fred.

“Yeah, got to get our priorities straight,” They smiled and then turned around walking down the hall at a quick speed.

Well then… I was left all alone again. All we needed now was for Draco Malfoy to come storming around a corner, very conveniently for him, and it would be like every other day at Hogwarts. I sighed, what was one supposed to do on Saturdays? I could study, but I didn’t really have any work…

I took the opportunity to explore the castle, roaming around the halls and looking around through different windows. I felt a bit silly just loitering around so every time someone walked by I picked up speed, smiled, and pretended like I had somewhere to be. Which was even more silly because most of the people seemed to be doing the same thing I was doing.

It was kind of a boring day, and by almost lunchtime, I had already explored all of the first floor and about half the outside. I was heading back to the great hall for lunch, where I grabbed a sandwich and sat out in the courtyard for the day.

“Hey, Juliet! Where have you been?” I heard Lottie and turned my head to see her and Maryann walking over.

“Hi, Lottie. I was just walking around, not much else to do really,” I smiled at her and felt my chest bubble up slightly.

I had no company almost the whole day and I was getting tired of thinking to myself. I’ve always been more of a social person, even if I was extremely awkward in the beginning, I enjoyed laughing and swapping stories with people. Just the possibility of spending the rest of the day lollygagging with friends made me ecstatic.

“Not much to do?!? You’re joking right?” Lottie scoffed lightly before plopping down onto the ground. She took a bite of one of the red apples that sat on the table during lunch.

“Well, I’m open to ideas,” I smiled and she raised her eyebrows.

“You’ve never been to Hogsmead have you?” She smiled and I shook my head no.

“Well it’s simply amazing, we could do that!” Maryann smiled and Lottie was already getting up as if it was decided.

“Oh we can’t! I wanted to go with Adeline,” I gave her a sad smile to which she shrugged.

“Well,” She sat back down, “We could practice quidditch… although we’d have to convince Cedric to come with us because we aren’t allowed to practice without a Captain.”

“Or we could fly a bit… although I’m not sure what the new rules are with the competition going on,” Maryann added in, Lottie lit up.

“Do you have a broom?” Lottie asked me and I nodded quickly.

“Although it wasn’t there when we came into my dorm-”

“That’s because they automatically get stored in the quidditch pitch! Come on then!” Lottie jumped up with a smile and pulled me to my feet.

We ran out to a large quidditch field, the stands are much more colorful and large than the Ilvermorny quidditch pitch. We approached a large white tent that was filled with multiple sets of quidditch balls. The tent was split into four different sections and it was obvious which parts were whose. Each section had a large white tarp that could be moved to cover their area, but almost all of them were open at the time.

The huge tent had a distinct line between every team’s colors. In one corner, Ravenclaw posters and blue flags adorned the walls, in the other corner yellow and black, etc. I smiled at the amount of pride each house seemed to show, although one section was closed off, I assumed it was Slytherin looking at the absence of green.

“Here we are!” Lottie ran over to the Hufflepuff section and whipped open a closet door. Inside lay many different brooms, of all shapes and sizes.

“And there you are my darling,” She smiled as she brought her broom out. I looked at it and smiled, it was a nice looking broom, “It was my mothers!”

“It’s beautiful,” I commented and she smiled at me.

“Lottie, where are the extras?” Maryann asked while walking around the section of the tent.

“Right here!” Lottie took a very old, outdated broom out of the closet. She threw it at Maryann who caught it easily. She must not play quidditch, therefore didn’t have her own broom.

“You’re lucky I can ride anything Lot,” Maryann scoffed at the thing and began walking out of the tent.

“It’s not my fault the school won’t buy new brooms. You should be grateful you get to use one,” Lottie turned around and waved at her to leave, “Do you see yours?”

I peered around her shoulder and scanned for the familiar wooden handle. When I didn’t find it I sighed lightly, “It’s not here, but I’ll move them around. You can go lift off, I got this.”

“Are you sure?” Lottie asked with furrowed eyebrows.

“I’m positive. Go on ahead,” I smiled and she began to walk out.

“Hey, if you don’t find it? Just take a quick look in the other closets, maybe it got put in the wrong place!” She smiled before running and jumping onto the broom with ease.

I searched through the closet, taking out each broom to be sure it wasn’t mine, and I still couldn’t find it. I searched everywhere I could in the Hufflepuff section before moving to the Gryffindor closet, and then the Ravenclaw closet. No luck.

I turned towards the one closed-off section hesitantly. Seriously? Out of all the places… it HAD to be in Slytherin. My stomach felt queasy and I hesitantly pushed the large tarp to the side. The walls were covered in more Slytherin pride than any of the other houses. I crept into the large section, making sure no one was lingering around the corner.

In the corner of the room was a large board with a crudely drawn lion on a piece of parchment. It wouldn’t have been an issue if there weren't multiple darts and knives sticking around and through the paper. Now I knew why the section was closed off, that was kind of scary.

I rushed through the room, quickly reaching the closet and peaking it open. A broom came falling out the black door and into my hands, I smiled in victory. I looked at the slightly yellow-stained handle, with my initials carved lightly in the grain of the wood. I had been planning to carve the end into a pukwudgie this year, but I guess that was changing… I didn’t mind.

My broom wasn’t the best one ever but it hadn’t ever failed me. I gripped lower onto the handle and began quickly walking out of the dark area, I didn’t want to be caught snooping around. My eyes glanced over to one of the desks and they caught on a black case. The latch had popped open, and a black handle shot out slightly as if someone had tossed it to the side.

I glanced out the tarp to see if anyone was nearby, before deciding it was alright to snoop just an itty bitty tiny bit. I speed walked over to the case and opened the top lightly, I gasped in surprise. A Nimbus 2001! I was speechless, I hadn’t ever seen a broom so beautiful in my life.

I ran my hand over it lightly. A thought to try it flashed through my mind but I eliminated it immediately. A broom was a center of pride for a quidditch player, it would be horrid of me to use someone else’s without their permission. Plus if I were to damage a broom this expensive I’d probably be expelled… especially since it was a Slytherins.

I sighed and lifted the edge of the broomstick back into its case, aligning it within the velvety fabric. I hesitated when I read the initials on the bottom of the black wood. In large silver letters, a graceful D.M. sat in pride.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered to myself. I quickly latched the case and slid it on the desk further. I did not need any other reason for Draco to hate me.

I turned around and brought my eyes to the door but they never made it all the way there. I jumped and let out a bit of a yelp in surprise. I backed up into the desk and brought my hands to the edge of the wood.

Draco stood a few meters from the doorway, glaring daggers at me. His eyes darted to the case, and I moved my hand away from it as far as possible. He turned his attention towards me again, his jaw clenched and his face scrunched in disgust.

“Draco! I- the case was open and I just wanted to make sure it got put away correctly. My broom got put in here on accident,” I stuttered and motioned to my broom, “I hadn’t, I uh didn’t know it was yours. It’s a beautiful broom by the way… very nice and… uh, well taken care of.”

I cringed at my attempt to save myself. I wasn’t entirely sure what to do as he just glared at me with unwavering disgust and disbelief. When he didn’t say anything I spoke up.

“Well then, uh. I think I’ll be on my way then-”

Before I could take a step out of the room, he scoffed.

“It must be hard seeing something better than what you have, I wouldn’t know,” He spat and I opened my mouth about to defend myself, “But still, it’s a bold move to sabotage someone’s broom. I didn’t think a mudblood Hufflepuff's like you could have the courage, I’m impressed.”

“What! No, I didn’t-” I glanced towards the broom and stepped away from the desk further.

“What type of spell could a mudblood summon enough magic to do? A hurling hex? Broom jinx?” He tested me with disgust while walking closer.

“I promise I would never-” I backed away from him, keeping as much distance as physically possible.

“Why wouldn’t you? Sweet, innocent, little Juliet,” He spat my name like I was worse than the dirt he walked on, “I’m onto your little act Bloom. You would jump at any chance to get rid of me wouldn’t you?”

“No!” I furrowed my eyebrows at him and yelled, “I wouldn’t ever do anything like that! No matter how cruel you are, Malfoy.”

“Then tell me, Bloom, what were you doing?”

“I already told you!”

He scoffed and raised his eyebrows as if it was a challenge, “Good luck convincing Professor Snape that.”

He started storming out of the tent before I panicked.

“Wait!” He stopped and then smirked at my panicking figure, “Think about it Draco, what if I didn’t jinx your broom. Then you’d be embarrassed in front of Snape, right?”

He hesitated and thought about that possibility, I took the chance to continue.

“What if I gave you my word that I didn’t sabotage your stuff?”

“Your word doesn’t mean anything to me,” He spat and I huffed. I should have seen that one coming.

“Okay well, I could ride it and show-”

“Yeah right, like I’d ever let you get your filthy hands on my broom. You’d probably crash it before you got off the ground,” He outright laughed at this suggestion.

“Can you go five minutes without insulting someone Malfoy?” I seethed. He just rolled his eyes like it was the dumbest thing someone had ever suggested to him.

“Listen and listen well. I’m not going to tell Professor Snape, not for your sake but for mine. I don’t believe you’re worth the time, you couldn’t come up with a spell powerful enough to trick a Nimbus 2001 anyways,” He said, completely ignoring my question.

“But I’m watching you, Bloom. All it takes is one letter, and your little friend will be gone. Shipped back to the U.S. where you both belong,” He scoffed and scanned me up and down in disgust. With that, he stormed out of the tent and I was left in disbelief.

I gathered my thoughts and stomped out of the tent a minute after him. That no-good pedigree… strutting around like everyone was supposed to bow down and kiss his shoes. He was absolutely infuriating, threatening Adeline and I like that. The worst part was that he was getting away with it.

“Hey, Juliet!” Lottie called from the air before zooming down, “We can’t go flying today, it looks like the wind is going to pick up fast. Don’t want to get injured before next season, you know?”

“Oh. Alright,” I was a bit disappointed I didn’t even get to go up on my broom but Lottie was right, there wasn’t any point in endangering ourselves.

“Look on the bright side though, at least you found your broom!” Lottie giggled while putting her broom in the nearby closet, I reached over and set mine down as well.

I heard a huge whoosh as Maryann roughly landed inside the tent. Her hair was all over the place and her face seemed flustered.

“Stupid school brooms, they never work correctly,” She huffed while tossing the broom against the side of the tent.

“I thought you could ride anything?” Lottie laughed and Maryann shoved her lightly.

“Can we head back now? I don’t want to be sucked away into some tornado,” Maryann jokes.

“Alright, let's go,” Lottie said and we began our journey back up to the castle.

Lottie and Maryann were caught up in some passionate discussion about broom care but my mind wandered elsewhere.

I didn’t believe for one second that Draco’s not going to tell Professor Snape because I wasn’t “worth the time.” He seemed to live to get a rise out of others, embarrassing and taunting people left and right. Now I just needed to know what game he was playing, before I lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: THAT LAST LINE THOUGH
> 
> I kind of am awesome you know, you can praise in the comments if you like.
> 
> Check out G's work but not before you vote and support the book!


	14. Halloween

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Lovelies! This was a totally original idea by G and I and I'm stoked to show y'all something new! Enjoy and get ready to have your mind blown :)

Time went by quickly when nothing was happening, pretty soon it was already a day before Halloween. Classes had picked up and we didn’t have as much free time as at the beginning of the year, but I didn’t mind.

I was excited to see what Hogwart students did for Halloween, I attended an Ilvermorny Halloween party once… Well, I almost attended a Halloween party. It’s a long story, but let's just say it didn’t go smoothly. Adeline had been trying to come up with some sort of idea for the past week on how to lighten things up, from the normal.

“Juliet that’s it!” Adeline shook my arm and I jumped slightly. I was almost asleep while we were getting prepared for some wacky test in Defense Against The Dark Arts, I was tired because Lottie’s cat was mewling the whole night… and the library’s lighting was like a warm embrace.

“What’s it?” I slowly brought my head up from the table, letting out a yawn. My eyelids fluttered halfway across my eyes, too lazy to bring them all the way up.

“After the Halloween feast tomorrow, we get the twins to pass out some invitations for a small party sorta thing but we just play a few games, and then late at night we play hide and seek in the school!” Adeline smiled with pride at her new idea.

I thought about it for a minute and sat up at the idea. Junk food from the kitchens, music, photos, pranks, laughing, games, and late-night partying with all my friends? Count me in!

“Wait that’s amazing! But what if we get in trouble for being out late at night?”

“Uhm… we hope no one gives us detention?” Adeline suggested and I scoffed lightly.

“Yeah sure, a great plan,” I rolled my eyes in sarcasm.

“The library is closing for the night. Go back to your dorms,” I heard the librarian remind us gruffly before moving to the next group of students.

We grabbed our things and started walking out of the library.

“I say we take that risk. It would be fun!” Adeline held the door open for me as the large room dimmed into darkness. I could never say no to a gathering… A month's detention would be worth it.

“Okay. Yeah, I’m in,” I smiled and nodded my head at her.

“Awesome,” Addy’s face lit up, “I’ll talk to the twins tonight.”

We broke off, saying our goodnights before heading to our own common rooms. My head thought about all the games we could play… there were many magical board games, spin the bottle, truth or dare, and so many more! Although most of those were a bit childish, it was Halloween… who cared if we played a few silly children's games.

___

I waited in excitement for the party to come. I knew Lottie was absolutely planning on going, although Maryann had different plans… for what I’m not too sure, she blushed when we asked why she had to decline.

Soon we were in potions for the day. Draco hadn’t spoken much whenever we had to work on something together, and not too much happened since the incident in the quidditch pitch. Besides the constant insults, me having to practically drag Adeline away from punching him… twice, and normal Draco nonsense.

“Are you doing anything for Halloween?” I attempted to lift the awkward silence that coated the workspace.

“Of course I am but I don’t think that’s any of your business. Can you not ruin this potion, we’re already halfway done,” Draco rolled his eyes at my “incompetence.”

I realized I hadn’t been stirring fast enough and the potion’s color was dulling, I sped up again making it return back to its normal burgundy color. Draco reached his hand over the cauldron that was brewing and sprinkled a bit of powdered bicorn horn into the swirling mixture. I smiled when I noticed that the bubbles were turning a bright red, just what we needed.

“Okay, I’m sorry for intruding on your life, your highness,” I muttered quietly to myself.

He shot me a quick glare at the muttering but I doubted he even heard it, I was whispering very quietly. Snape walked by soon after this and only glanced at the potion, not giving much attention to our accomplishment. Draco scoffed lightly, he seemed slightly disappointed at how the head of his house just glanced over the work we did. I felt kind of bad for him…

“What are you looking at, Hufflewus?” He sneered, making me roll my eyes again. I took the previous thought back. He was so rude, and for what?

The day zoomed by, and I was super excited for the feast but even more ecstatic for the get together later on. The feast was amazing, the pumpkins floating in the air were some of the biggest jack-o-lanterns I had ever seen and Hagrid seemed quite proud of their sheer size.

The food was fun and we had a few amazing conversations but it was soon the part I had been waiting for! We rushed back to the dormitories, although Dumbledore's speech stuck out in the back of my mind. He had mentioned specifically, not to stay past curfew despite the celebration...

I put on a dark green tank top, a big comfy dusty blue sweater I got last year for Christmas, some black pajama pants, and the comfiest pink socks I owned. Lottie quickly helped me braid my hair into double dutch braids going into two curly pigtails. I enjoyed the look nicely and thought I seemed extremely cute.

Lottie was wearing a yellow sweater with a badger in the middle and matching plaid pajama pants. The last time I was out late and in the Gryffindor common room, I was freezing the whole time. We heard a knock, so I went and opened the door.

“Hey, Cedric!” I glanced at his outfit and smiled, Addy was gonna lose her mind when she saw him like this, “What’s up?”

“I need to run to the kitchen for snacks, I’m in good graces with a few of the elves in there. I just need some help carrying-'' He leaned up against the doorway slightly, and his eyes shot over to Lottie when she interrupted.

“Already on it Cap!” She emerged from behind me and began to walk out of the doorway.

“Well then, you can go back to what you were doing I suppose,” Cedric chuckled and straightened back up.

“Are you sure you don’t need any help?” I furrowed my eyebrows but he just smiled.

“You’re good. I only needed one more person, just meet me out in the common room okay?”

I smiled and nodded as he turned and left to go catch up with Lottie. I grabbed my wand, phone, and an extra scrunchie, in case I needed to pull my hair back, stuffing the items into my large pant pockets,

It only took a few minutes of waiting by the fireplace before Cedric popped his head through the doorway.

“Come on out! They can’t crawl through with all of the food they're holding,” He had a dopey grin on his face, I could already guess what was happening.

Sure enough, I crawled out the barrel to see Lottie looking smugly at Pierre, and him seeming annoyed. They were whisper yelling at each other around the large stack of goodies and drinks they both held. Cedric seemed amused.

“We made a bet, McCoy. And I’m the one carrying the most food, so I win!” Lottie smiled at him and he huffed.

“It doesn’t count if you use magic! You said so yourself! I don’t owe you a single penny,” Pierre said, almost dropping a fancy glass bottle. I quickly grabbed it and he smiled at me.

“You’re just jealous I beat you,” Lottie taunted and Pierre looked at her in shock.

“That’s it-” Pierre looked like he was about to drop everything he was holding before Cedric interfered.

“Alright, knock it off, guys. Do you wanna get yelled at? I could lose my prefect position for this,” Cedric mumbled the last part just loud enough I could hear it.

“Lottie I could grab the-” She interrupted me before I could get the words out.

“No! Uh, I can carry it all there no problem,” She shot a glare at Pierre who just smirked.

“Whatever you say… Charlotte!” He laughed when she tried to kick him and maintain the balance of all the food she held.

“You’re lucky I have stuff in my hands,” Lottie threatened.

Cedric led the way through multiple corridors, taking a nondirect route to Gryffindor tower. Since Cedric was a Prefect, he knew where most of the other prefects and staff were making their nightly rounds. Somehow, we almost bumped into Snape TWICE… which I found weird he was constantly up at night… and was very pale… and dark. He also spoke a lot like an old-timey person… I gasped lightly at my fake discovery and giggled to myself. Snape is a freakin vampire. Now, all we needed was Bella, but the middle age version.

The most difficult part of our journey was the stairs. Pierre almost flew through the fake step that the twins helped me miss, and Cedric scowled at him when he let out a laugh that could have woken up the whole castle. When we finally made it to the top of the stairs, we noticed the Gryffindor portrait was already swung open.

Fred was standing near the doorway with a mischievous smirk on his face.

“Finally made it I see! Come inside, the others should be down soon,” He ushered us into the Gryffindor room. The only light came from the fireplace and the staircase, dark red still being the predominant focus.

Lottie and Pierre looked around the room in awe, scanning over its every feature. George lounged on a large crimson couch while Dean, Neville, Angelina, Seamus, and a few others I didn’t recognize waved at our appearance.

Pierre had a huge smile on his face as we stood next to the fireplace. Angelina quickly sprang up and moved the chessboard out of the way so they could set the food down. Footsteps made me look up towards the staircase where Ginny, Hermione, and Adeline were heading down.

I had to hold back a laugh when Adeline looked at Cedric, her eyes widened and glued to his figure. This of course was an issue when you're walking downstairs and she missed a step, almost crashing into the floor beneath her. She somehow caught herself but not without a bit of teasing from the redhead behind her.

My attention was then directed to the doorway where a few more students walked through. I was happy to see Easton, as we had grown quite close in Astronomy and of course Luna, one of the best people I had ever had the pleasure of meeting. I waved them over excitedly, and they stood by the fire with us.

The twins welcomed a few more people and then closed the portrait, it seemed that was it for the night. There was a good amount of diversity between the group. A few Ravenclaws and many Gryffindor, although it seemed Lottie, Pierre, Cedric, and I were the only Hufflepuffs… I wished there wasn’t a reason that there were no Slytherins, but it seemed that we had yet to make friends with one.

“Well, what are the plans for the evening?” Luna broke through the silence with a soft smile, gazing around the students.

“Uhm, well we can just hang out in here and play some games for a bit, and then since it’s Halloween, go and pull some pranks for the teachers and play a huge game of hiding and seek,” Adeline seemed to be a bit on the spot with her plan but everyone was too excited to notice. The twins even cheered at the mention of jokes, a few other Gryffindors joined the whooping. This lightened the mood a bit and people began muttering to each other in excitement.

“How about a game of exploding snap?” The twins smiled, pulled out a deck of blue and gold cards from Fred's pocket.

Everyone agreed and we began a game. It was new to me, but luckily I got paired with Easton who knew more about the exploding cards than I did. We didn’t stay on the game for long though as it was way too hard to play with the amount of people we had.

“How about we play truth or dare?” One of the Ravenclaws that was friends with Easton commented. I remembered his name to be Michael and I smiled at the idea. Truth or dare was always fun, whoever said otherwise just didn’t play with the right people.

A few people were a bit hesitant at the idea but mostly everyone agreed. At this point, everyone was either laying down or sitting on the floor and furniture. I resided next to the fireplace, Easton on my left, Adeline on my right, and Cedric next to Adeline.

Truths and dares were exchanged around the room, although most of them didn’t have much significance. The funniest dare so far was Ron being able to stuff 37 chips into his mouth before his lip got cut open, and the funniest truth was Pierre having to admit that Lottie was better than him at Quidditch (Can you guess who got him to say that?)

“Adeline, I dare you to do your best Harry impression and Juliet to do your best Ron impression,” Pierre huffed, he wasn’t too happy about the truth he received. Was he even allowed to do more than one person?

Adelines face lit up, she seemed to already have an idea in mind as she smirked at Ron and Harry.

“Oh God, we’re in trouble,” Ron groaned. He shoved his face into his hands and a few people chuckled.

I took a deep breath to do my first Ron impression but was interrupted by Adeline grabbing my arm and zooming up the stairs. We stopped at a dorm and I looked at her funny.

“What are we doing?” I asked and Addy just pushed the door open.

“To do the best impression, you must become the person. And to our advantage, I know which room is theirs,” She smiled and then rushed into the room, pointing towards Ron’s trunk for me to grab things.

I was hesitant to go through his things, so instead, I grabbed the sweater he had next to his trunk. I smelt it first to be sure it didn’t smell gross but was surprised. I slipped the robe on over my sweater and draped the red tie loosely around my neck. It was a bit larger than me, especially the shoulders, but it would do for a Ron impression.

The slight smell of apple cider, firewood, and fresh grass lingered around me. I brought my pigtails up from the back of my head, bringing them over my face and tying them with a scrunchie so I looked like I had bangs. I turned to see Adeline with her own Harry clothes on having the same idea as me with the hair, she wrinkled her nose slightly and looked at me.

“Harry wears wayyy too much cheap cologne,” She coughed slightly and I laughed. The fact that Harry wore any cologne was way more funny than it should have been, “Come on then, we can’t keep the show away from them for too long.”

We couldn’t hold back laughs as we stumbled down the staircase, I almost tripped over Ron’s large robes twice before stopping just in front of the entranceway.

“Okay, are you ready? One, two, three!” Addy whispered before walking out into the living room with a grin on her face.

Laughter emitted throughout the room when they saw her, and Ron groaned when I emerged not far behind. Pierre was practically rolling on the ground, Harry couldn’t help but smile, and even Hermione offered a loud laugh.

Adeline seemed to realize something, she ran over to Harry and took the glasses off of his face.

“Why’d you take my glasses? Give me them back, I can’t see!” Adeline stormed over to Harry, taking his glasses right off his face, “Much better!”

Harry seemed offended at her dramatic reaction as he laughed, but this made Ron chuckle a bit… for the first time in weeks, he didn’t seem utterly pissed.

“Bloody hell,” I began, making sure to add a huge voice crack in it. I whipped my hair out of my face dramatically, this made even more people let out a huge burst of giggling, “Harry, have you changed your hair? I must say I liked it much better the way it was before!”

“Shove off, Ron. I thought I’d try a new look,” Adeline almost laughed but kept it together.

“Is that for us?” I acted like I got distracted by the food on the table. Without waiting for an answer I quickly slid onto the ground shoving a huge handful of marshmallows in my face.

“I was beginning to think mmhj I was going to starve to death, much the way they feed us here,” I was barely able to make out, keeping my mouth as closed as possible not to drop marshmallow on the floor.

Hermione couldn’t help but double over with laughter, Easton was on the ground now holding his stomach, and Lottie threw her head back and let out a large cackle. Eyes turned to Adeline as she spoke up, next.

“Ron, did you hear that I got 700 points for Gryffindor today? All because Headmaster Dumbledore liked my new hair,” Adeline whipped her hair to the side dramatically.

Everyone who wasn’t in Gryffindor was gasping for air at this point. The people in Gryffindor seemed a bit confused but still laughed along with the others. I had swallowed all the marshmallows by now, and I stood up to deliver my next line.

“You know who has nice hair? Viktor Krum,” I pretended to swoon into a love like trance.

“More like brilliant hair Ron! Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! I’d even say spectacular!” Adeline went for Potter's obsession with that phrase this time.

“Alright, we get it! Now can you give me my glasses back I can’t see,” Harry held out his hand and another chorus of laughter rang through the room.

“I don’t act anything like that-” Ron began before being interrupted.

“Yeah, you do.” Half the room chorused at the same time, laughter still trickling from everyone’s chest.

Adeline handed Harry his glasses back. I quickly took off the robe and tie and began walking up the stairs when Adeline stopped me.

“I got this one,” She grabbed the robes out of my hand and started up the stairs, passing me.

“Are you sure? I could-”

“I’m already halfway up, go back to the party,” Adeline yelled through the stone wall and I smiled.

“Your turn Juliet!” Hermione reminded me as I sat down.

“Oh yes, that’s right… Ginny, truth or dare?” I asked the redhead as I sat on the floor, leaning on the sofa, right next to Lottie’s legs.

Ginny seemed a bit taken back before deciding her answer, “Truth.”

“When was the last time you lied?”

“Ooh, one second. Probably about an hour ago when Ron asked if his pajama pants looked like girl trousers… I said no.” Ginny grinned and turned towards Ron who turned beet red. George and Fred found this hilarious.

“Give us a spin Ronald,” they said in unison, with a bit of an eyebrow wiggle. The room laughed and Ron scoffed.

“No. Ginny it’s your turn in case you’ve forgotten… And you can’t dare me to give you all “a spin,” Ron huffed. Ginny rolled her eyes at this one.

“I wasn’t going to choose you anyways!” Ginny scanned around the room before landing on Cedric, a huge smirk tugged on her face.

“Cedric, truth or dare”

“Oh boy,” Cedric smiled and leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. Pierre hit Cedric’s shoulder with his elbow and shot him a smile, “Truth”

“Everyone is wondering about this one. You all don’t have to thank me but… Do you like Adeline?” Ginny brought her voice down a bit and leaned into the middle of the room.

Everyone held their breath as Cedric sat there, pondering how he was going to answer the question. We all seemed to lean in, a lot of the eyes relayed to me but I wanted to know his answer too! Pierre had an “oh shoot” look on his face and he let out a whistle.

“Yes of course. What isn’t there to like? Haven’t I made it obvious?” Cedric said a bit of a blush on his cheeks as he leaned back into his seat confidently.

Everyone began smiling as they turned and muttered gossip about it. I practically squealed at the information, Ginny and Hermione doing the same thing. We all already knew she liked him… now it was just the matter of who had the guts to pull the first move.

“When are you-” Ginny started to ask Cedric before she stopped herself.

Everyone hushed themselves and turned their attention to the staircase where Adeline was hopping down cheerfully.

“Sorry I took so long, I had to… grab my wand,” She noticed how many of the eyes were on her, “What’s up?”

People turned back to the people beside them, filling the room with busy talk. It was as if nothing had happened, and Adeline just walked through into the common room with confusion all over her face. She looked to me for answers but I just shrugged, a knowing smile making itself clear.

“Do we want to go pull those pranks now?” Adeline spoke up over the murmurs, hesitantly. The twin’s faces lit up as if it was a dream and Fred already seemed to have a whole plan.

“Okay everyone, we can’t all travel as a big group because we will be sure to get caught, but stay in small groups and be as quiet as possible. Everyone needs to know the time because at midnight exactly, we’re starting our hide and seek. Ron and Ginny will be the seekers, so once you get found, either head back to your own common rooms, or head back here,” Fred announced as people listened intently and began forming groups.

I glanced around the room and decided to join Easton who smiled at my action. Adeline immediately went to Cedric and we decided to combine groups, Harry eventually joining at the last minute. At this point, everyone had either had a group or had straight-up head back to their own beds.

People filed out the portrait and then started their quest. We were quick to reach a classroom with Cedric in the lead, although it was way too dark to really tell at what point in the castle we were at. Cedric used his wand to unlock the door and we pushed through and were immediately enveloped in a blanket of pure black as we stepped inside.

“Where’s the light?” Easton felt along the walls touching my hand by accident. He pulled back immediately and chose no to address it.

“It’s dark in here,” Harry spoke nearby me and I looked in his direction. Nice observation Sherlock Holmes. I thought I heard a laugh outside the door and I spun around.

“What was that?”

Cedric shushed us aggressively and whispered, “Lumos.”

The blinding white light lit up the familiar dull walls, we were in the History of Magic Classroom.

“Cedric, what are we doing here?” Harry spoke up while looking around the room. We were all wondering the same thing.

“Binns has had the exact same schedule for the past few decades. He does the same thing every day. But...if the room is different, then we can see if he gets a little less boring,” Cedric said while moving towards the front of the room lightly.

“Cedric that’s lame. Binns never notices anything unless it’s a student actually showing interest in his class,” Easton spoke, and although I couldn’t see his face too well I could tell he rolled his eyes. I looked at him, rude.

“Well do you have any better ideas?” Cedric sounded a bit annoyed at Easton’s criticism but his mood immediately changed when Adeline put her hand on his shoulder lightly.

This is literally the cutest thing ever I thought.

“I think we should pull some pranks on Filch. I’d love to get back at him,” Easton said in a duh tone.

“Okay calm down. We have enough time to do both. What’s the plan? Flip the tables upside down?” Adeline piped up and Cedric seemed almost proud. For what I’m not too sure.

Everyone seemed to agree and Easton stepped down from his weird authority challenge. I’m not sure what his issue was with the classroom idea, I thought it was splendid. We began using our wands to flip the tables over and have them hover in the air at normal desk height. Cedric took the more detailed items, flipping the chalkboards, teacher’s desk, and other items.

It was quite quick, only about 30 minutes had passed before we were done. Next, we headed for Filch’s office, which Harry seemed to be quite familiar with. (He was dragged down there in his second year for tracking mud in the castle. Quite the story actually.)

“Right here,” Harry said as we approached the single room. He checked to be sure no one was in there before he ushered us in.

“Payback is sweet,” Easton sighed walking around the room, searching for things to do.

I was preoccupied with the office in itself. I glanced around the room, gladly it was lit by an oil lamp and we didn’t have to occupy our wands with magic. File cabinets littered the walls, and I chuckled at the W section, a whole drawer was open, “Weasley” in big red letters occupied the space. My chuckle immediately stopped when I looked up a bit further, chains with big clasps adorned the walls.

I gulped, what kind of psycho kept chains on his walls? Surely they weren’t ever used on students?!?! I hadn’t had any contact with the old caretaker but Easton had plenty of stories to tell on our way to Astrology, apparently, they didn’t get along too well. I suppose Easton’s know it all comments weren’t appreciated by most of the Hogwarts staff, but mostly with Snape and Filch from his stories.

I turned around and thought of a good prank, not too harsh but enough to be a good joke. Easton was quick to use a gluing spell, attaching things to the desks and walls, and he jinxed the old chair to break as soon as any weight went on it. (I would say it was a bit rash but Filch did give Easton a whole month's detention for proving the caretaker wrong in front of a bunch of students… )

`Adeline made the room smell like chocolate pastries and cookies as a small stream of gold aire whooshed from the tip of her wand. This inspired Cedric to mumble a quick spell, summoning cookies in which he put a sleeping spell on them. I wasn’t as advanced as some of the other magic but I made a few flowers that would explode in flower petals and glitter when they died. It was actually supposed to be more of a celebratory spell, but it was better than nothing.

“Harry? Is there anyone Filch fancies?” I whispered to him and he smirked at the bouquet in my hands.

“Planning on asking him to the Yule ball are you?” He snickered a bit loudly, Easton was close enough to hear this sentence. He looked at me quickly and when I made eye contact he looked back towards the file cabinet he was gluing shut, which happened to be in the “P” section.

“No, you daft dimbo! I want to have a letter on them, so then he won’t think students messed with the stuff and actually takes the bait!” I whispered and hit him on the head with the flowers, which made a few petals float to the floor.

“Ow! Okay sorry, just a joke,” He brought his hand up to his head and I cringed when I realized there were thorns on the stems, “I think Madam Pince and him have a thing, but no one else agrees.”

“Oh, that’ll be splendid!” I said quickly, grabbing a crisp parchment from the old desk, “Oh! I’m sorry about hitting you, by the way, I forgot about the thorns…”

Harry just smiled, shook his head, and then turned back to watch the door for anybody coming. I reached for a quill and tugged, my arm flew up and almost hit me in the face. Easton loudly laughed at this and I scowled at him.

“Would you happen to have a non-enchanted quill on you?” I asked and he smiled.

“Oh yes! I’m a Ravenclaw so that means I always have a quill on me right? Even on Friday evenings,” He rolled his eyes at my question and I stomped my foot lightly.

“You know that’s not what I meant!” I whispered and with a bit of a chuckle he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a tiny feather. He focused on it and it enlarged into a full-sized quill.

“I’m only teasing. Of course, I have a spare quill!” He snickered at my scowl. I rolled my eyes and snatched it, wrote a quick note, and handed it back. I attached the letter to the stems lightly and turned to see Easton putting the feather back into his pants.

I realized then how nice he looked. He was wearing black sweats, like most of us, and a grey long-sleeved shirt. What was different was the dark blue coat that hung around his shoulders fashionably, comfy yet stylish. I blushed slightly when I realized I was staring but he didn’t seem to notice.

Suddenly a few noises made us attentive to the hallway. We rushed out of the room over to a different doorway for a minute or two, huddled together tightly. Cedric had Adeline close to his chest, Easton was behind me but was sure to leave enough distance from my back that it wasn’t uncomfortable which was nice of him, and Harry was behind Easton.

When the footsteps got closer, we held our breath until they were by. Harry quickly peaked from behind Easton before dramatically flinging himself back onto the wall.

“Snape and Flitwick just walked by,” He whispered so quietly I almost asked ‘huh?’ Luckily Easton held his finger up to his lips before I could let the noise escape me.

A few minutes later we moved from our hiding places and Cedric looked down at his watch, “We have 50 minutes to find a place and hide.”

“I know where I want to go!” I said excitedly. Easton was already walking off in another direction and Harry was doing the same. I was planning on going with one of them to my hiding spot because I didn’t want to be alone… but I definitely wasn’t going to intrude on Cedric's and Adeline's evening, they needed to be alone to get anything done apparently.

“Uhm okay Juliet, you’re going on your own?” Adeline whispered and I nodded

“Yeah, I’ll see you back in the common room,” I winked at Adeline and glanced up at Cedric whose face was as red as a KitKat candy bar wrapper.

I walked off in the direction of the Headmaster's office. It was well lit all the time, and while it was known for teacher traffic, it meant no one would look there. There was a perfect staircase that laid hidden and hollow, around a corner. I didn’t get too far when I heard loud whispers, I panicked and ducked into a different classroom, hiding under a large desk.

I almost screamed when I looked up and saw a face staring back at me, but covered my mouth quickly. I recognized the figurine to be in the Transfiguration classroom, and I realized where I was. I wasn't as close to the headmaster's office as I thought.

The whispers grew louder and panicked as multiple shoes ran into the room. I couldn’t see their faces, as it was too dark and their bodies were pressed against the wall. They hushed quickly as a cat ran past the open doorway, an orange light followed it and I realized who it was. Mrs. Norris stopped by the room and mewled lightly, Filch stopped right behind the cat and peered into the darkroom. He grumbled slightly before suspiciously closing the door and latching it behind him.

I was about to stand up and announce my presence in the room as someone walked by the desk I was under. I heard a female voice mutter “Lumos” from behind me, and a white light illuminated the room including the shoes right next to my hand. I sucked in a breath, those weren’t shoes someone would wear to a Halloween party… whoever these people are, they’re definitely not playing hide and seek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay but that suspense though! Sadly my spam updating has been put on hold until next week hopefully. I'm sorry you all had to wait so long and I hope you enjoyed all the new content!
> 
> Have a great night lovelies!


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